A suspected Algerian terrorist alleged to have stabbed a Portuguese man to death was violently taken down by police after his knife rampage in a sleepy French village.

The alleged knifeman, named as Brahim A by French media, stabbed the 69-year-old to death while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during a suspected terror attack in Mulhouse, near the French-German border on Saturday.

It has since emerged he had previously called on Muslims to arm themselves and ‘fight the unbelievers’, and had been due to be deported to Algeria had the country’s authorities not refused the request 10 times.

The 37-year-old suspect also seriously injured two police officers and lightly wounded three other police officials during the bloodbath, which unfolded at a market in the eastern city of Mulhouse, on the border of Germany, on Saturday afternoon.

Video shared on social media showed police running after the suspect on Rue Lavoisier in Mulhouse before tackling him to the ground in the road, restraining him.

Another clip showed the alleged attacker, with a white bandage tied around his head, being led into a police car by officers in body armour. 

French prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said the man – named as Brahim A by Le Figaro – had been on a terror prevention watchlist, called FSPRT, and was arrested.

Now details have come to light of how the suspect, an illegal immigrant who had been living in the French town since 2014, had previously filmed a social media video calling for jihad or ‘holy war’.

On November 5, 2023, the man had used his phone to record a video urging Muslims ‘to fight for Palestine, to take up arms and to fight the unbelievers’.

He posted it to Facebook and went to his local mosque in a bid to encourage ‘as many people as possible to follow him’.

Hours later he was arrested by police at his home, where they discovered a knife and a Koran under his pillow.  

He was sentenced to six months in prison and banned from French territory for ten years.

Having almost served his time in jail, Brahim was released 50 days early and assigned to a detention centre for deportation. 

Astonishingly, French authorities requested a consular pass from the Algerian authorities ten times – but on each occasion Algeria refused to grant one.

He was under house arrest and required to report to police every day at the point when the latest incident occurred. 

France’s national anti-terror prosecutors unit (PNAT), who are leading the probe, said the assailant attacked police officers during Saturday’s attack, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest). 

Witnesses confirmed the Algerian was heard shouting the words – which are used by Muslims as an exclamation of their faith – several times.

A civilian passer-by who intervened was fatally injured, the PNAT have confirmed as Mulhouse prosecutors reveal he was a 69-year-old Portuguese national. 

French President Macron has since said there was ‘no doubt’ that the incident was ‘a terrorist act’, specifically ‘an Islamist terrorist act’.

He added that the government was determined to continue doing ‘everything to eradicate terrorism on our soil’.

Meanwhile far-right politician said the incident was a ‘dramatic reminder that the war against terrorism will not be won with words, but with actions.’

She added in a social media post: ‘The French no longer accept that we do not attack the Islamist ideology that arms the terrorists. 

‘The State must demonstrate unwavering determination in this vital fight: control of our borders, systematic forfeiture of nationality for candidates for Jihad, hardening of our penal arsenal against terrorist crimes, expulsion of radical imams, breaking of diplomatic relations with countries supporting fundamentalists. 

‘Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.’

The Mayor of Mulhouse, Michèle Lutz, issued a statement via Facebook following the incident, writing: ‘Horror had gripped our city.’ 

She added: ‘On behalf of the city of Mulhouse, I extend our brotherly feelings to the victims and their loved ones.’ 

The arrested man, who was placed into custody at around 4pm local time, was on a file containing suspects said to have been ‘radicalised as terrorists’, the prosecutor said.

One seriously wounded police officer sustained an injury to the carotid artery, and the other to the thorax, according to the prosecutor.

The attack unfolded by the Market Square in the middle of Mulhouse when it was packed with shoppers.

Photographs show firefighters and police descending on the scene in the picturesque city centre after the assailant reportedly attacked several people. 

Police established a security parameter after the attack that happened during a demonstration.

Military units were sent to the scene as backup and forensic scientists searched for evidence.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was expected to travel to the scene of the horror attack last night.

‘The man was attending a police station to sign his judicial control form connected with his house arrest,’ said an investigating source.

‘He refused to do this, and instead attacked a number of people with a knife. Those hurt included at least five municipal police officers.’

It came only a day after a Spanish tourist was stabbed at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial by a 19-year-old Syrian refugee. 

The attack was launched a day before Germany’s national election in which concerns over migration are expected to boost the far-right AfD party.

A week earlier, a 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death and five others people wounded by a Syrian asylum seeker who was detained at the scene in Villach, a town near the border with Italy and Slovenia.

Yesterday’s attack in France follows a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives.

The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed during one night in Paris.

Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafés, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.

Earlier that year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.

In July 2016, 86 people were called and more than 400 injured when a 19 tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade at Nice, on the Mediterranean coast.

During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy.

And in October 2020, three people were stabbed to death by a Tunisian immigrant in the Notre Dame basilica in Nice.

There have been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.

Terrorists have also targeted teachers, such as Samuel Paty, who was decapitated in the greater Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in 2020.

MailOnline has approached France’s Interior Ministry for comment.