Four infant children between the ages of one and three have been stabbed in a park in Annecy, southeast France.
After entering a children’s playground to commit the assault, police overpowered and apprehended the knifeman.
All of the children are hospitalized, but according to local officials, their conditions are stable.
Three-year-old British and Dutch children are among the injured. Also injured were two adults, one of whom is in critical condition.
The Swedish police have verified that the suspect is a 31-year-old Syrian refugee.
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Regional deputy Antoine Armand characterized the attack as “horrific” and stated that authorities were conducting an investigation but had “very little” information.
Social media footage of the assault, which was deemed too graphic for broadcast, depicts a small playground with normal activity. Children are rushing around, accompanied by their parents and caretakers.
Then, a man carrying a dagger enters the room, prompting immediate screams. Clearly searching for children to attack, he attacks a child in a stroller.
The French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, and the minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin, visited the site of the attack.
Ms. Borne stated at a press conference that the assailant has “no criminal or psychiatric record” and has a child “approximately the same age as his victims.”
The prosecutor for Annecy, Line Bonnet-Mathis, told reporters that the victims differed in age from 22 months to 3 years.
She stated that there “appears to be no terrorist motivation.”
According to the police, the perpetrator has refugee status in Sweden and recently moved to France, leaving his wife and three-year-old daughter behind. In an abortive asylum application for refugee status in France last year, he claimed to be a Christian from Syria.
The assailant invoked the name of Jesus Christ during the incident.
A woman who identified herself as his ex-wife told BFM TV that her ex-spouse was a Christian.
“He has not contacted me in four months. “[Our relationship] ended because we lived in Sweden and he did not want to live in Sweden anymore,” she explained, adding that he had never exhibited violent tendencies.
In recent years, France has grown acclimated to knife attacks, which are frequently perpetrated by lone young men with a history of petty crime and an Islamist connection. Obviously, this assault is of a distinct nature.
The suspect allegedly assaulted the children, some of whom were in strollers, as they visited the park, before fleeing and stabbing an elderly man nearby.
As a result of police intervention, the perpetrator was shot in the legs.
The French National Assembly observed a minute of silence, and roadways have been closed near the attack site.
President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the nation was “shocked” by the cowardly deed.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak, who is currently in the United States, stated, “All our thoughts are with those affected by this unfathomable attack, including a British child, and their families.”
I’ve been in contact with President Macron, and we’re prepared to provide any assistance we can.
As Eleanor Vincent approached the lake, she “knew something terrible had occurred,” she told the BBC.
It’s startling that people were going about their business or on vacation, as I was. There is no other way to describe it.”
To date, the majority of politicians have been cautious not to jump to conclusions, but it is inevitable that the attack will fuel the immigration debate.
