A Syrian refugee armed with a knife injured six people, including four children aged 22 to 36 months, in a park in Annecy, southeastern France, on Thursday morning, an attack “without apparent terrorist motive” which sparked a wave of emotion in Europe.
• Read also: “Run! Run!”: a man sows terror in a park in Annecy, France
The aggressor, “a political refugee who would be homeless, arrived in Annecy in the fall of 2022” was “neither under the influence of narcotics nor under the influence of alcohol”, declared the prosecutor of Annecy Line Bonnet-Mathis during a press briefing.
“As it stands, we have no elements that could lead us to believe that there is a terrorist motivation”. “We are trying to understand his motive”, she said, adding that she could not exclude “at this stage a senseless act”.
“We are shocked by this heinous, unspeakable act,” declared French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who went there to “express all the support and all the solidarity of the nation”.
The four injured children, including a Briton and a Dutchman, were transferred to Geneva and Grenoble after first aid treatment on site. “Their state of health is extremely fragile, they are still in absolute emergency”, indicated the prosecutor, specifying that the attacker had targeted “vital parts”.
An adult is still in hospital after being injured by the attacker and then hit by police fire during the arrest. Another adult was hit more lightly, according to the prosecutor.
British consular representatives have been dispatched to the scene, announced the head of British diplomacy James Cleverly, traveling to Paris, expressing his “strong solidarity with the French people in these terrible times”.
The head of Italian diplomacy Antonio Tajani also expressed his “full solidarity with France” by calling on Twitter to “condemn such violence with the greatest firmness”.
French President Emmanuel Macron for his part denounced an “attack of absolute cowardice”. “The Nation is in shock,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
Abdalmasih H., of Syrian nationality and born in 1991, was granted asylum in Sweden in 2013 where he lived for 10 years. “He couldn’t get Swedish citizenship, so he decided to leave the country. We separated because I did not want to leave Sweden,” said his ex-wife, joined by AFP.
He was in a regular situation when he arrived in France a few months ago. In a new asylum application filed in France in November 2022, he declared himself a “Christian from Syria”, according to a police source. And he was wearing a Christian cross when he was arrested.
The attack occurred around 9:30 a.m. on a playground, near the Jardin de l’Europe, in the historic center of Annecy.
The man dressed in black shorts, a blue scarf tied over his head, attacked children on a playground, according to images of the tragedy authenticated by AFP. We see him in this video raising his arms to the sky and shouting in English “in the name of Jesus!”.
Other images relayed by the press show him running in the middle of a lawn, knife in hand. “An Opinel-type folding knife,” said the prosecutor, adding that her backpack had been seized.
According to various testimonies, the attacker tried to flee and attacked an elderly person before being arrested by the police, who opened fire. An investigation has been opened into the police shootings.
The emergency services were alerted at 9:41 a.m. local time, the intervention triggered immediately and the man arrested four minutes later, according to a timing released by the police.
“I was running by the lake, and suddenly I see dozens of people running in the opposite direction. (…) There is a mother who says to me “run, run! There is someone stabbing everyone all along the lake, he stabbed children, run!” former professional footballer Anthony Le Tallec in an Instagram story.
SCREENSHOT/INSTAGRAM/ANTHONY LE TALLEC
The attack sowed fear in this usually very calm water town. “What happened is unacceptable, appalling. It never happened in Annecy,” said environmentalist mayor François d’Astorg, expressing his “anger” during a press briefing.
The authorities had to deny rumors circulating in the city about the presence of a second attacker.
The attack sparked an avalanche of reactions in the political world, with right-wing and far-right elected officials highlighting the origin and status of the aggressor.
After this tragedy, “it is our whole migration policy and a certain number of European rules that must be questioned”, said on Twitter the president of the National Rally (ex-National Front, far right) Jordan Bardella.
A far-right collective has planned to demonstrate in the evening in Annecy. “We will do what is necessary to deal with this event if it were to take place”, warned the prefect Yves Le Breton during a press briefing.