PARIS (Reuters) – A Sudanese refugee stabbed and killed an employee at an asylum seeker center in the southern French city of Pau on Friday after his political asylum application was rejected, officials said.
A police source said the Sudanese asylum seeker had killed the center’s director by repeatedly stabbing him in the throat. The attacker arrived in France five years ago and committed acts of violence with a knife in 2017, the source said.
“This is a terrible drama, especially since the victim has spent his entire professional life helping migrants and asylum seekers,” the mayor of Pau, François Bayrou, told France Bleu radio.
“The man’s application for asylum was rejected, and for good reason. He then turned against the head of the service, this is extreme and absurd violence, ”said Bayrou, adding that the suspect had already spent time in prison.
The police source said the attacker’s request for political asylum was rejected, but it was unclear if that was the reason for the murder. It was also unclear whether it was the head of the center who notified him that his request was rejected on Friday morning.
French media reported that the alleged attacker was arrested.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin was going to the asylum seekers center in Pau and is expected to speak to reporters on Friday.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Matthieu Protard; Editing by Toby Chopra and Gareth Jones)