Two people were killed Tuesday, March 28 in a stabbing attack against a Muslim center in Lisbon, announced the Portuguese police, who neutralized the aggressor with a firearm. “The attack left several injured and, for the moment, two dead”police said in a statement, adding that the alleged perpetrator of the attack had been arrested after being injured.
The man, who carried out this attack with “a large knife”, is hospitalized in a hospital in the Portuguese capital, authorities added. The attack took place near the Ismaili Center in Lisbon. This community of Shia Ismaili Muslims established its world headquarters in Lisbon and its spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, obtained Portuguese nationality in 2019.
Unconfirmed terrorist hypothesis
The Ismaili Muslims, a Shiite community of fifteen million people spread over some thirty countries, have around 7,000 members in Portugal.
“I express my solidarity and condolences to the victims and the Ismaili community”Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa reacted to the press, adding that he was “premature to make any interpretation on the motivations of this criminal act”.
The hypothesis of a terrorist attack mentioned by the local media was therefore not confirmed at this stage. The last attack perpetrated on Portuguese soil dates back to July 27, 1983, when an armed group made up of five Armenians attacked the Turkish embassy in Lisbon, causing the death of two people. The assailants had perished in the attack.
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