The attempted knife attack on Assimi Goita took place after Eid-el-kabir prayers at the Grand Mosque in the capital, Bamako, the presidency said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday.
“The attacker was immediately overpowered by security. Investigations are ongoing,” it said.
AFP reports that Goita was whisked aways, adding that its correspondent saw blood at the scene, though it was not clear who had been wounded.
The attack happened as an imam was directing worshippers outside the mosque for a ritual animal sacrifice.
AFP quoted Mali’s religious affairs minister, Mamadou Kone, to have said that a man had “tried to kill the president with a knife” but was apprehended.
The director of the Great Mosque, Latus Toure, said an attacker had lunged for the president but wounded someone else.
Goita, 37, was sworn into office last month despite facing a diplomatic backlash over his second power grab in nine months.
