The Amaq News Agency, which is linked to the Islamic State group, reported that a member of the militant group had carried out the attack in Trappes, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the group’s propaganda online. Quoting police sources, some French outlets reported that the assailant, who was known to authorities, was on a terrorism watchlist.

On Twitter, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb praised the police reaction and called the attack a “tragedy.”

Though there have not been any large-scale terrorist attacks in France this year, knife attacks have become more frequent. In May, a 20-year-old man stabbed five passers-by, one fatally, in a Parisian neighborhood before he was killed by police.

In October, an individual stabbed two women to death in front of the St.-Charles train station in Marseille.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Elian Peltier © 2018 The New York Times