A migrant suspected of beating to death at least one person amid a series of violent attacks across Europe has finally been arrested in southern France after launching an unprovoked assault on a woman on a train.
The suspect, identified as Levis E., is believed to have beaten several victims with concrete slabs in France and the Netherlands, while evading capture by traveling across the continent by train.
The 32-year-old Cameroonian national, who is subject to a deportation order according to Le Parisianwas detained by police at Toulon train station after allegedly assaulting a 26-year-old woman aboard a Marseille-bound train on Tuesday.
Train operators stopped the train in Toulon after the alleged victim told them that a man wearing a black hooded sweater punched her several times and kicked her in the shin as she tried to find her seat.
The alleged attacker, who according to train staff was traveling without a ticket or identification document, was peacefully detained by gendarmes in Toulon at around 8pm on Tuesday.
But soon after arresting the man, investigators realized that his charge was the prime suspect in at least one murder and attempted murders across Europe.
The suspect, identified as Levis E., is suspected of murder and attempted murder in France and the Netherlands in sickening attacks in which he used concrete blocks as weapons, police sources say.
A man believed to be Levis E. is seen balancing a concrete block above his head before launching an attack.
This still image taken from CCTV shows the moment a man launched a sickening attack on a person sleeping on the street.
Levis E. is believed to have carried out a violent campaign in the Netherlands and France, carrying out savage attacks on unsuspecting victims before immediately boarding a train and fleeing the country to avoid authorities.
Authorities suspect he may have committed murder less than 24 hours before his arrest yesterday in Toulon, according to the report from France. Southwest exit.
Chilling surveillance footage that emerged in the French city of Lyon allegedly shows an individual matching Levis E.’s description smashing a concrete block over the head of a sleeping homeless man on the night of November 11-12.
The attacker is seen in the footage brandishing the dense slab high before running towards the man sleeping in the corner and striking him with the weapon.
The tragic victim, a man from Moldova who was sleeping rough on the streets of Lyon, was found dead with serious head injuries.
That video bears a striking resemblance to a similar attack in Rotterdam just over a week ago, where a homeless man was left in a coma following a similar assault on November 4 and 5.
Dutch police have been actively searching for the Rotterdam attacker, who was captured on CCTV fleeing the scene after dropping another concrete slab on the head of his victim who was lying on the ground.
The man boarded a train bound for the town of Breda hours after the attack, before traveling to the cities of Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium.
Sharing an urgent appeal for information about their investigation, Rotterdam police released a CCTV image of the attacker.
He is seen wearing a black hooded jacket, dark trousers and a pair of sneakers with distinctive orange laces, an appearance that matched the description given by the woman who claimed to have been assaulted on the train to Marseille.
At the time of Levis E.’s arrest in Toulon last night, the victim attacked in Rotterdam, a 37-year-old man named Benjamin, who was sleeping on the street, was still in a coma, according to a Dutch media outlet. Telegraaf.
In addition to the attacks in Lyon and Rotterdam, Levis E. is also wanted for at least three other violent attacks in the French cities of Evry, Strasbourg and Dijon in recent weeks.
Each attack has similar characteristics: homeless people were beaten in public spaces by a suspect who later boarded a train.
The attacker is seen walking away after having slammed the block into the homeless man.
The suspect was arrested yesterday in Toulon. (In the photo: a policewoman at the Toulon central police station)
Each attack has similar characteristics: homeless people were beaten in public spaces by a suspect who later boarded a train.
The arrest of Levis E. has triggered an urgent multinational investigation.
Authorities in Belgium and the Netherlands are working closely with French officials to determine whether the Cameroonian national could be involved in other unsolved crimes.
Officers who arrested Levis E. in Toulon discovered that he was already subject to a mandatory deportation order, as well as arrest warrants for attempted murder and misdemeanors, including shoplifting.
He is currently being questioned by police in Toulon, but is expected to be transferred to Evry, where his initial arrest warrant was issued.
“After checking the file of the wanted person, they realized that he was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge in Evry,” said Toulon prosecutor Samuel Finielz.
“The man was arrested and measures will be taken to transfer him to the investigating judge who issued the order.”
The Lyon prosecutor said The Figaro that it was still too early to confirm that Levis E. was involved in the Rotterdam and Lyon attacks.
But Le Parisien reported that Levis E.’s clothes and DNA match those of the alleged killer of homeless people in Evry and Lyon.
Meanwhile, the family of the homeless man attacked in Rotterdam has organized a fundraiser in the hope that he will come out of his coma.
Benjamin’s sister Amy reportedly posted the crowdfunding campaign to ensure that he “never has to sleep rough again” in the hope that he can recover from his critical condition.
As of yesterday afternoon the fundraising had raised more than 26,000 euros.