The victims of the knife attack at the Ismaelita Center in Lisbon, Portugal, are Mariana, 24, and Farana, 49. The mother of one of the victims was at the scene early on Tuesday morning, when she thought her daughter was only injured.

According to the Portuguese news portal Correio da Manhã (CM), one of the victims, Mariana, had a degree in political and international relations from the Nova Faculty of Social and Human Sciences in Lisbon.

At around 11 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a man entered the Ismaili Center with a gun, while an English class was in progress. The motives for the attack are still unknown.

The attack also injured a teacher, who was stabbed in the neck. The victim went to Santa Maria Hospital on his own.

The attacker, an Afghan national, attended the center, where he studied Portuguese, and was shot by the PSP and taken to São José Hospital. CM knows that the attacker had already made threats to people at the center, including the dead.

How it all happened

The attacker had a disagreement with a Portuguese teacher. The attack took place while classes and other activities were taking place. The Afghan man received a phone call before stabbing the teacher, witnesses at the scene said.

Before the attack, the authorities said that the attacker had argued with the two dead victims. After the argument, Abdul Bashir, 34, got into an argument with a Portuguese teacher at the center and stabbed him.

Nizam Mirzada, the brother of an Afghan woman who witnessed the attack on the teacher, says that 16 students from Afghanistan were in the classroom. The motives for the attack are still unclear, but Abdu Bashir knocked the teacher to the ground and allegedly pulled out a knife, striking him in the chest and neck. The witness urged the Afghan man to stop hurting the teacher. To no avail.

Abdul Bashir shouted for no one to come near him and left the classroom. It was then that he attacked Mariana Jadaugy, a member of the teaching staff of the Ismaili Community, and Farana Sadrudin, who works to support the integration of refugees.

The weapon used in this crime was not brought from home and it is not known where Bashir got it.