(Annecy) With tears in their eyes, dozens of shocked residents of Annecy lay flowers or come to meditate in front of the small improvised memorial in the playground where a man stabbed four very young children Thursday morning, arousing a strong emotion in France.
Bouquets of white roses, stuffed animals, candles and messages of support accumulate in front of the wooden castles and slides of the kindergarten located by the lake, reopened on Thursday afternoon by the authorities a few hours after the tragedy. .
Like many residents, Julie, a high school student, came Friday morning to lay a rose to “pay tribute to the victims” in this park where she often comes.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife visited the bedside of injured children on Friday.
The four children “were all able to be operated on, they are under permanent medical supervision and their condition is stable”, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Friday, traveling to Salon-De-Provence.
“We are in the time of emotion, we are still in the time of care for these little children, I invite everyone to show dignity in these circumstances”, added Elisabeth Borne, who had visited the day before. in Annecy.
French government spokesman Olivier Véran said earlier on Friday that two of the four injured children were still in “vital emergency”.
“From what I know, there would be two more children who would be considered in absolute emergency, in vital emergency”, he declared, specifying that “surgical interventions have been carried out”.
Of the four injured children, one is British and another is Dutch. Aged 22 to 36 months, the children were transferred to Geneva and Grenoble (south-east) after first aid on site.
Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived in Grenoble (south-east) on Friday where three of the four injured children are hospitalized, noted an AFP journalist.
PHOTO BENOIT LAGNEUX, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived Friday in Grenoble (south-east) where three of the four injured children are hospitalized.
The French president and his wife want to be alongside “the victims and their families as well as all the people who in Annecy have contributed to bringing them help and support”, indicated the Elysée.
The knife attack, which occurred in broad daylight in a busy park in the city by the lake, caused very strong emotion in France.
The motivations of the attacker, a Syrian refugee born in 1991, remain unclear. The act is “without apparent terrorist motive”, according to the Annecy prosecutor’s office which does not exclude a “senseless gesture”.
Abdalmasih H., who spent the night in police custody, must undergo a psychiatric examination on Friday morning, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
improvised altar
With no criminal record and no fixed address, this 31-year-old man who lived for ten years in Sweden, had left his family a few months ago to go to France and had been in Annecy since the fall of 2022. When he passed in the act, he was not under the influence of narcotics or alcohol, according to the Annecy prosecutor, Line Bonnet-Mathis.
The ongoing investigation for “attempted murder” will “determine the motive” of the attacker, she said Thursday, adding that she could “not exclude at this stage a senseless act”.
The assailant 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 didn’t want to leave Sweden, ”said his ex-wife, joined by AFP.
This father of a three-year-old child was in a legal situation when he arrived in France a few months ago. In a new asylum application filed in France in November 2022, he declared himself “Christian of Syria”, according to a police source. And he was wearing a Christian cross when he was arrested.
According to Gérald Darmanin, the French authorities notified him last Sunday, June 4, that he could not obtain asylum in France since he already had it in Sweden. Asked about the possible link between this refusal and the acting out, he spoke of a “disturbing coincidence”.
The assailant, black shorts and blue scarf tied on the head, aimed at the children during his deadly attack, according to images of the tragedy authenticated by AFP. We also see him in this video raising his arms to the sky and shouting in English “in the name of Jesus! “.
This cry does not in itself justify a referral to the anti-terrorist prosecution, according to a source familiar with the matter.
An adult was hospitalized after being injured by the attacker and then hit by police fire during the arrest, and another adult was hit more lightly.
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.