A man with known psychiatric problems stabbed a 19-year-old girl three times in western France on Tuesday, telling police he had heard voices ordering him to make a sacrifice for Ramadan, the Rennes prosecutor said.

The 32-year-old man was immediately assessed by a doctor and sent to a psychiatric hospital after stabbing the girl twice in the wrist and once in the abdomen, prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet said, adding that the teenager's wounds are not life-threatening.

The attack came a day after a jihadist killed a French police couple in a small town near Paris, in a stabbing inspired by the Islamic State group.