Four young children have suffered critical injuries from a knife attack while playing in a park in Annecy, France. Image Credit: FreePik
Warning: this story contains graphic content
Four young children have suffered critical injuries from a knife attack while playing in a park in Annecy, France.
A man was seen shouting and waving a knife in the air before repeatedly lunging to attack those in the playground.
The man appeared to shout “on name of Jesus Christ” in a video taken by a bystander.
Witnesses claim that he appeared to be attacking people at random, including children in prams and seniors.
All four children, aged between 22 months and three years old, are in intensive care.
Two adults also suffered knife wounds with one of them sustaining life-threatening injuries.
A man attempted to stop the attack by throwing his backpack at the knifeman, then chasing him as he tried to leave the park.
Twitter users have labelled this man a hero after the video was posted online.
Local police used firearms to detain the 31-year-old attacker, who remains in police custody.
Annecy prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis told reporters that the man’s motives were unknown but did not appear to be related to terrorism.
She said that an investigation for attempted murder had been opened and that the suspect was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne stated that the suspect was “not known by any intelligence service” and did not have “any history of psychiatric problems”.
She said the attacker is a Syrian refugee who was granted asylum to Sweden in 2013.
He entered France legally with Swedish identity documents.
He had recently applied for asylum protection in France, which was rejected as he already has refugee status in the fellow European Union country.
The Swedish Migration Agency said the man sought Swedish citizenship in 2017 and 2018 but were both denied.
In Paris, politicians in the French National Assembly delayed a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims of this knife attack.
“There are some very young children who are in critical condition and I invite you to respect a minute of silence for them, for their families, and so that, we hope, the consequences of this very grave attack do not lead to the nation grieving,” assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet said.
