An asylum seeker claiming to be Syrian sowed terror on Thursday morning and caused a stir in France by wounding, armed with a knife, five people including four very young children before being arrested by the police.
President Emmanuel Macron denounced an “attack of absolute cowardice” in Annecy.
“The Nation is in shock,” said the head of state on Twitter.
The man attacked children aged around three who were on a playground in the large park bordering Lake Annecy.
Three of the victims, two children and an adult, have a life-threatening condition, a source close to the case said.
According to the identity declared by the attacker, he was born in 1991, of Syrian nationality, asylum seeker and unknown to all files, we learned from a police source.
The terrorist character or not of the attack is being assessed, according to a source familiar with the matter.
“It happened at 9:45 a.m. this morning, with knives” near the Jardin de l’Europe, a very busy park located on the shores of Lake Annecy, reported the prefecture, which had previously reported a provisional toll of eight injured.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin immediately reacted on Twitter: “Several people, including children, were injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy. The individual was arrested thanks to the very rapid intervention of the police.
A crisis unit has been set up at the Haute-Savoie prefecture, which has also set up an information system for the public.
According to the daily Dauphiné liberatedthe victims were transferred to the Annecy Genevois hospital center and the witnesses were taken to a building close to the scene of the tragedy, the surroundings of which were cordoned off by a large police force.
“Serious attack”
According to witnesses interviewed on BFM TV, after the attack, the man tried to flee from the playground and attacked an elderly person before being arrested very quickly by the police.
In Paris, deputies and members of the government observed a minute of silence in the National Assembly.
The President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet invited this minute of silence “for them, for their families”, after this “serious attack”.
Elisabeth Borne and Gérald Darmanin are expected on site Thursday, their entourages announced to AFP.
“Appalling attack this morning on the Pâquier in Annecy. All my thoughts to the victims and families,” tweeted Mayor François Astorg, asking the public “to avoid the Pâquier sector for the smooth running of operations.”
The entire political class reacted immediately.
“Dread seizes us all”, tweeted the president of the Renaissance group (presidential majority) in the Assembly, Aurore Bergé, while Éric Ciotti (Les Républicains, right) reported “tremendous emotion and great anger ! “.
“The investigation will determine the conditions, but it seems that the perpetrator has the same profile that is often found in these attacks. We will have to draw all the consequences without naivety, with strength and lucidity, ”he added to the Assembly.
” How is it possible ? Attacking little ones! Hit them with a knife! Our heart is in pieces having to live it, ”abounded for his part Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France Insoumise, radical left).
“Dread and horror”, reacted for her part Marine Le Pen, of the National Rally (RN, far right).