# Islamist terror in Europe, 2021 to 2026: 10 deadly attacks > Ten deadly Islamist terror attacks in and around Europe, 2021 to 2026: Crocus City Hall, Solingen, Brussels, Manchester and more, all sourced. - URL: https://fightingislamists.com/islamist-attacks-europe-five-years.html - Updated: 24 October 2026 - Publisher: The Analyst, Fighting Islamists (https://fightingislamists.com/) - Cite as: The Analyst, "Islamist terror in Europe, 2021 to 2026: 10 deadly attacks", Fighting Islamists, updated 24 October 2026. https://fightingislamists.com/islamist-attacks-europe-five-years.html **The short answer.** In the five years from October 2021 to October 2026, Islamist terrorists killed people in Britain, Norway, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Russia. The ten attacks below killed 164 people between them, 149 of them in a single attack on a Moscow concert hall. Inside the EU, Europol counted 20 deaths from completed jihadist attacks from 2021 to 2025, and jihadism was the EU's deadliest form of terrorism in every one of those years.[^tsF][^tsG][^te26] ### Key facts - **Deadliest:** Crocus City Hall near Moscow, 22 March 2024, 149 killed. Islamic State's Afghan branch (ISIS-K) claimed it.[^crocus] - **Most common weapon:** the knife. Six of the ten attacks were stabbings or used a blade. - **Who:** nine of the ten were carried out by a man acting alone. Several had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and Islamic State claimed at least three. - **Targets:** a member of parliament, a gay bar, a school, football fans, a concert, a police officer, a town festival, a trade-union march, a synagogue on Yom Kippur and a Pride crowd. - **Known to authorities:** at least five attackers were already known to police, counter-terrorism programmes or immigration officials before they struck. ## The ten attacks at a glance | Date | Place | Killed | Attacker and claim | |---|---|---|---| | 15 Oct 2021 | Leigh-on-Sea, England | 1 | Ali Harbi Ali, British, inspired by Islamic State[^amess] | | 25 Jun 2022 | Oslo, Norway | 2 | Zaniar Matapour, pledged allegiance to Islamic State[^oslo] | | 13 Oct 2023 | Arras, France | 1 | Mohammed Mogouchkov, pledged allegiance to Islamic State[^arras] | | 16 Oct 2023 | Brussels, Belgium | 2 | Abdesalem Lassoued, Tunisian; Islamic State claimed it[^brussels][^brussels2] | | 22 Mar 2024 | Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, Russia | 149 | Four gunmen; ISIS-K claimed it[^crocus] | | 31 May 2024 | Mannheim, Germany | 1 | Sulaiman A., Afghan, Islamic State supporter[^mannheim] | | 23 Aug 2024 | Solingen, Germany | 3 | Issa al H., Syrian; Islamic State claimed it[^solingen] | | 13 Feb 2025 | Munich, Germany | 2 | Farhad N., Afghan, Islamist motive[^munich] | | 2 Oct 2025 | Manchester, England | 2 | Jihad al-Shamie, pledged allegiance to Islamic State[^heaton] | | 25 Jul 2026 | Berlin, Germany | 1 | Abdul Ballout, 21; minister called it an Islamic terror attack[^berlinA][^berlinB] | ## 1. Sir David Amess, Leigh-on-Sea, 15 October 2021 Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old British man, stabbed the Conservative MP Sir David Amess to death at his constituency surgery in a church in Essex. The judge found he killed Amess to take revenge for MPs' 2015 vote to bomb Islamic State in Syria. Ali had been referred to the Prevent counter-radicalisation programme in 2014 and his case was closed in 2015. He was given a whole-life order, meaning he will never be released.[^amess] ## 2. Oslo Pride, 25 June 2022 Hours before Oslo's Pride march, Zaniar Matapour opened fire outside the London Pub, a gay bar, and at two nearby places. Two men were killed and nine were seriously wounded. He had pledged allegiance to Islamic State. In July 2024 an Oslo court convicted him of murder and aggravated terrorism and gave him the maximum 30 years. The court said his aim was "to kill as many gay people as possible" and to spread fear among gay people more broadly.[^oslo] ## 3. Arras school, 13 October 2023 Mohammed Mogouchkov, 20, a former pupil born in Ingushetia, Russia, stabbed the French teacher Dominique Bernard to death at the Gambetta-Carnot school in Arras. Bernard was killed trying to stop him reaching the pupils. France's anti-terror prosecutor said the attacker had sworn allegiance to Islamic State in an audio recording. He was on a French watch list for radicalisation. He, his brother and a cousin are awaiting trial.[^arras] ## 4. Brussels, 16 October 2023 Abdesalem Lassoued, 45, a Tunisian living in Belgium illegally after his asylum claim was refused, shot dead two Swedish football fans in central Brussels before a Belgium–Sweden match, and seriously wounded a third. In a video he said he was inspired by Islamic State, which later claimed the killings. Police shot him dead the next morning in a café in Schaerbeek.[^brussels][^brussels2] ## 5. Crocus City Hall, near Moscow, 22 March 2024 Four gunmen attacked a rock concert at Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, just outside Moscow, then set the hall on fire. 149 people were killed and around 600 injured, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Europe in two decades. ISIS-K, Islamic State's branch based in Afghanistan, claimed full responsibility. A Moscow court gave the four gunmen life sentences in March 2026. The UN says ISIS-K's external operations network planned it.[^crocus][^un796] ## 6. Mannheim, 31 May 2024 Sulaiman A., a 25-year-old Afghan, attacked a rally by the anti-Islam group Pax Europa in Mannheim's market square with a knife. Police officer Rouven Laur, 29, was stabbed in the neck and died two days later; five other people were wounded. The court found he was an Islamic State supporter who wanted to kill critics of Islam. He was jailed for life in September 2025, with no early release.[^mannheim] ## 7. Solingen, 23 August 2024 At a festival marking the town's 650th anniversary, a man stabbed people in the crowd, killing three and wounding eight. Islamic State claimed the attack. The attacker, Issa al H., was a Syrian asylum seeker who should have been transferred to Bulgaria in 2023, but the deadline passed. He was jailed for life in September 2025.[^solingen] ## 8. Munich, 13 February 2025 Farhad N., an Afghan whose asylum claim had been refused but who was allowed to stay, drove a car into a trade-union march in Munich. A 37-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter died. Prosecutors said he acted from an Islamist motive. A Munich court gave him life in August 2026.[^munich] ## 9. Heaton Park synagogue, Manchester, 2 October 2025 On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Jihad al-Shamie drove at people outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation and attacked them with a knife. Two worshippers died. Police shot him dead within minutes. He had called 999 during the attack to pledge allegiance to Islamic State, and police said he was influenced by extreme Islamist ideology.[^heaton] ## 10. Berlin, 25 July 2026 A van was driven into a crowd near Berlin's Pride celebrations and the driver then attacked people with a machete. A 65-year-old Polish woman was killed and 29 people were injured. Police shot the suspect, Abdul Ballout, 21, who died. Germany's interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said "everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack". ACLED reports that Ballout had earlier been sentenced for preparing an attack.[^berlinA][^berlinB][^acled] ## Other deadly attacks in the same five years The ten above are not the full list. Others include: - **Algeciras, Spain, 25 January 2023:** a man attacked two churches with a machete, killing the sacristan Diego Valencia. Spain's national court investigated it as terrorism.[^algeciras] - **Paris, 2 December 2023:** a German tourist was stabbed to death near the Bir-Hakeim bridge by a man who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a video. He had been jailed in 2016 for planning another attack.[^paris23] - **Villach, Austria, 15 February 2025:** a Syrian who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State stabbed a 14-year-old boy to death. He was jailed for life in May 2026.[^villach] - **Mulhouse, France, 22 February 2025:** an Algerian under an order to leave France killed one man with a knife. President Macron called it an "Islamist terror act".[^mulhouse] Not every attack belongs on this list. Prosecutors found no extremist motive in the Aschaffenburg stabbings of January 2025, and the Magdeburg Christmas-market attacker of December 2024 was an anti-Islam activist, not an Islamist.[^asch] See [terrorist attacks in Europe](https://fightingislamists.com/terrorist-attacks-europe.html) for the full method. ## What the attacks have in common **Lone attackers, cheap weapons.** Apart from Crocus, every attack was carried out by one man with a knife, a gun or a vehicle. That makes plots harder to spot. Europol counted 24 jihadist attacks in the EU in 2025 alone, completed, failed and foiled, of which 15 were foiled.[^te26] **Islamic State still inspires.** Islamic State lost its territory in 2019, but most of these attackers pledged allegiance to it, and it claimed Brussels, Crocus and Solingen. See [Islamic State today](https://fightingislamists.com/islamic-state.html). **Missed chances.** Ali was referred to Prevent; Mogouchkov was on a watch list; Lassoued, Issa al H. and Farhad N. had all been refused asylum or were due to be removed and were still in the country; Ballout had a previous conviction for preparing an attack. See [Islamist terrorism and migration](https://fightingislamists.com/islamist-terrorism-migration.html). **Chosen targets.** Jews, gay people, critics of Islam, teachers, politicians and crowds celebrating Western freedoms were picked deliberately. The victims were of every faith and none. ## Questions people ask ### How many people have Islamists killed in Europe in the last five years? The ten attacks on this page killed 164 people, 149 of them at Crocus City Hall near Moscow. Inside the EU, Europol counted 20 deaths from completed jihadist attacks from 2021 to 2025. Britain, Norway and Russia are outside the EU and are not in that count. ### What was the deadliest Islamist attack in Europe in the last five years? The Crocus City Hall attack near Moscow on 22 March 2024, which killed 149 people. Islamic State's Afghan branch, ISIS-K, claimed it. ### What was the most recent deadly Islamist attack in Europe? The van and machete attack near Berlin's Pride celebrations on 25 July 2026, which killed one woman and injured 29. Germany's interior minister said the evidence pointed to an Islamic terror attack. ### Are most terrorist attacks in Europe Islamist? Not by number every year, but they are by deaths. In 2025 Europol recorded 45 attacks in the EU, of which 24 were jihadist; jihadist attacks have been the deadliest in the EU every year since 2015. ### Does this mean Muslims in Europe are dangerous? No. The attackers are a tiny number of people driven by an extremist ideology, and Muslims are among its victims. The point of this list is to name that ideology and the failures that let it kill. ## Related guides - [Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe](https://fightingislamists.com/terrorist-attacks-europe.html): the deadliest attacks since 2004 and Europol's yearly counts. - [Islamist terrorism in the UK](https://fightingislamists.com/islamist-terrorism-uk.html): attacks since 7/7, MI5 and Prevent. - [Islamic State today](https://fightingislamists.com/islamic-state.html): the group behind most claimed attacks. - [Islamist terrorism and migration](https://fightingislamists.com/islamist-terrorism-migration.html): what the attackers' immigration histories show. - [How Islamist radicalisation works](https://fightingislamists.com/radicalisation.html): how young people are drawn in. [^tsF]: Europol, "EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2022 (TE-SAT 2022)", July 2022 (2021 data) ; Europol, "TE-SAT 2023", June 2023 (2020 to 2022 table). ; [^tsG]: Europol, "EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2025 (EU TE-SAT 2025)", June 2025 (2022 to 2024 table) ; Europol, "TE-SAT 2024", June 2024 (2023 data). ; [^te26]: Europol, "EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2026 (TE-SAT 2026)", 13 July 2026, pp. 18-20 and 27. [^amess]: Central Criminal Court, "R v Ali Harbi Ali: sentencing remarks", 13 April 2022 ; Home Office and Counter Terrorism Policing, "Prevent learning review: Ali Harbi Ali", 8 February 2022. ; [^oslo]: Al Jazeera, "Iranian-born Norwegian man gets 30 years for Oslo Pride shootings", 4 July 2024 ; The Local Norway, "Norwegian court hands maximum sentence to Oslo Pride shooter", 4 July 2024. ; [^arras]: The Local France (AFP), "French schoolteacher killer claimed attack for Islamic terror group: prosecutor", 18 October 2023 ; Europe 1, "Attaque au couteau à Arras: de l'Ingouchie à la France, le parcours tumultueux de la famille de l'assaillant". ; [^brussels]: The Brussels Times, "Brussels terror attack: what we know so far", October 2023. [^brussels2]: The Local Sweden, "ISIS claims responsibility for Brussels attack that killed two Swedes", 18 October 2023. [^crocus]: Novaya Gazeta Europe, "Moscow court hands perpetrators of Crocus City Hall terror attack life sentences", 12 March 2026. [^un796]: UN Security Council, "Sixteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team (S/2025/796)", 8 December 2025. [^mannheim]: The Local Germany, "Afghan gets life in prison for jihadist knife murder in Germany", 16 September 2025 ; The New Arab, "Afghan man given life sentence in Germany after fatal stabbing at anti-Islam rally". ; [^solingen]: The Local Germany, "Syrian jailed for life over deadly knife attack at German festival", 10 September 2025. [^munich]: Euronews, "Afghan man Farhad N. jailed for life for 2025 Munich car ramming that killed two", 6 August 2026. [^heaton]: Associated Press via KSAT, "Manchester synagogue attacker pledged allegiance to Islamic State group, police say", 8 October 2025 ; Jewish News, "Heaton Park synagogue attack: Inquest opens into deaths of two worshippers", 29 October 2025. ; [^berlinA]: NPR via KUOW, "Suspect in Berlin Pride vehicle attack is dead, police say", 25 July 2026 (updated 27 July). [^berlinB]: Euronews, "Berlin community remembers victims of Pride parade attack", 28 July 2026. [^acled]: ACLED (Joel Crisetig), "Berlin attack highlights persistent Islamist threat in Europe", 27 July 2026. [^algeciras]: NBC News, "1 dead in Spanish church machete attacks; terrorism link probed", 26 January 2023. [^paris23]: Gulf News (AFP), "German tourist stabbed to death in Paris 'terror' attack", 3 December 2023. [^villach]: Arab News (AFP), "Austria sentences Syrian to life over deadly knife attack", 27 May 2026. [^mulhouse]: France 24, "Macron says deadly knife attack in eastern France an 'Islamist terror act'", 22 February 2025. [^asch]: Staatsanwaltschaft Aschaffenburg, press release 23/2025, 11 June 2025.