List of terrorist incidents in France

This is a list of terrorist attacks in France from 1800 to the present. Several 19th-century French rulers were targeted in unsuccessful assassination attempts which killed innocent bystanders.
Since 1970, France experienced 2,654 terrorist incidents, resulting in 1,247 terrorist-related deaths and 2,559 injuries, the second highest in western Europe after the United Kingdom. France remains the country most affected by Islamist terrorism within Europe, with recent data showcasing a total of 82 Islamist attacks and 332 deaths from 1979 to 2021.

Background

France has a lengthy history of terrorist attacks carried out by a variety of groups from the extreme right, extreme left, extreme Basque, Breton, Savoy and Corsican nationalists, Algerian insurgent groups and Islamist extremists. Most of the attacks have been bombings utilising improvised explosive devices. Anarchists carried out a series of bombings and assassination attempts in the 19th century. A number of attacks associated with the Algerian War took place in the 1950s and 1960s, including the deadliest terrorist attack in France in the 20th century, the 1961 Vitry-Le-François train bombing carried out by the pro-colonialist French nationalist Organisation armée secrète.
Various Middle Eastern factions carried out shootings and bombings in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly in Paris, while during the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, insurgents associated with the Armed Islamic Group carried out a series of major attacks against the Paris public transport system. Nationalist extremists from the Basque, Breton and Corsican communities carried out a number of assassinations and targeted bomb attacks in the 1990s and 2000s. Islamist extremists have carried out numerous attacks in the 2010s, of which the November 2015 Paris attacks have been the bloodiest to date. Although 2015 has been the deadliest year so far in terms of fatalities caused by terrorist attacks, the number of separate terrorist attacks in previous years has been far higher. The highest number of attacks recorded in a single year was 270 in 1996, largely carried out by Algerian Civil War insurgents. The last year without any recorded terrorist attacks was 1971.

List of incidents

Outside France, the terrorist attack with the most French victims was the 19 September 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 over Niger, in which 170 people died, 54 of them French citizens.

History

21st century

Year	Number of incidents	Deaths	Injuries
2021	3	1	4
2020	9	7	14
2019	3	4	16
2018	3	10	30
2017	9	3	16
2016	12	89	451
2015	36	161	446
2014	14	1	15
2013	12	0	5
2012	65	7	8
2011	8	0	4
2010	3	1	0
2009	9	0	11
2008	13	0	1
2007	16	3	8
2006	34	1	3
2005	33	0	11
2004	11	0	10
2003	34	0	21
2002	32	0	4
2001	21	0	16
2000	28	4	1
1999	46	0	2
1998	12	1	0
1997	130	0	4
1996	270	18	114
1995	71	19	177
1994	97	7	22
1993	7	0	0
1992	126	9	12
1991	137	6	5
1990	30	3	3
1989	25	3	2
1988	54	6	19
1987	87	5	8
1986	95	25	306
1985	107	17	83
1984	145	15	57
1983	121	19	179
1982	62	17	143
1981	66	8	78
1980	94	20	74
1979	412	11	41
1978	59	21	17
1977	53	3	7
1976	58	7	10
1975	39	3	25
1974	29	3	32
1973	14	4	20
1972	9	1	0
1971	0	0	0
1970	0	0	0
Total	2,979	448	1,779