A Swiss tourist was murdered in Algeria this month when a knife-wielding man attacked her at a cafe in front of her children, slitting her throat while shouting "Allahu Akbar,” media reported.
The attack took place in Djanet in southeastern Algeria on October 11, but was first reported this week by the French newspaper Liberation.
Switzerland's foreign ministry told AFP that it was aware of “the violent death of a Swiss citizen on October 11 in southeastern Algeria.”
It said she had been part of a group of five travelers, all of them Swiss, but provided no further details.
Algerian authorities have meanwhile remained silent about the attack, and Swiss broadcaster RTS reported that the authorities had even asked residents in the area to refrain from sharing information on social media about what had happened.
At the time of the attack, the woman, whose name and age were not given, was reportedly seated outside a popular Djanet cafe with her children and a friend.
The attacker, reportedly a young man from northern Algeria, slit the woman's throat, and she later died in hospital, according to RTS.
While his motive was not known, the broadcaster reported that the man had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) and “Long live Palestine” during the attack.
Following the attack, the man fled the scene.
RTS reported that the Algerian authorities had deployed significant means to catch him, including using helicopters and distributing flyers with his picture, and he was apprehended several days later.
The man had also reportedly attempted to attack another group of tourists at a market shortly before the deadly attack, but had been pushed back.
The attack came as Algeria has been striving to promote tourism, especially in the Sahara region, with authorities promising to facilitate tourist visas.
Some 2.5 million tourists visited the country last year -- its highest number of visitors in two decades, according to a recent report by Euronews, which has been doing promotional work with the government's ANEP media and advertisement agency.
Algeria suffered through a decade of civil war in the 1990s following the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)'s victory in the country's first ever multi-party municipal elections.
The FIS, which had vowed to establish an Islamic state, clashed with security forces, triggering the war that would go on to claim tens of thousands of lives, with many of the deaths blamed on Islamist groups.
