Knife Attack Injures Several Children in Annecy, France by Syrian Refugee

08.06.2023

Four young children and at least one adult were injured after a knife-wielding man attacked a group of children playing in the French Alps town of Annecy on Thursday. The attacker, described by police as a Syrian refugee, has been arrested.

(Voice of Deutsche Welle Chinese Network) A knife attack occurred in a park in Annecy (Annecy), a small town in the Alps of southern France, on Thursday (June 8), resulting in four children and at least one adult being injured, some seriously. . The four injured children were all under the age of 5. The incident happened around 9:45 a.m. local time.

Police said two children, about three years old, and an adult were battling for death, while two other children suffered minor injuries.

Police sources said the attacker was an asylum seeker from Syria, Agence France-Presse reported. Authorities have confirmed his identity. The 1991-born man has no criminal record. The police said that the attacker had lived in Sweden for 10 years before. He obtained legal refugee status in April this year and would often go to France. His motive for committing the crime is temporarily unknown.

The incident took place in the children’s play area of ​​the Lakeside Park in Annecy. According to eyewitnesses, the suspect ran into the park crazily with a knife and randomly slashed passers-by. At least one of the injured children was sitting in a stroller. “He jumped into the play area and started yelling and then ran to the pram and kept attacking the kids with a knife,” a witness said.

Another witness told BFMTV that the attacker attacked an older man, jumped on him and stabbed him repeatedly.

The Associated Press quoted a nearby ice cream vendor as saying he had seen the attacker in the park a few days earlier, looking at the lake.

According to previous media reports, an adult was injured in the attack. But local police said a second adult was also injured and is being treated in hospital. Police provided no other details about the victims or an immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the number of adult victims.

Footage broadcast by French media showed multiple policemen overpowering a man. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that the attacker had been arrested by police.

Investigations into the man who was arrested at the scene are still ongoing, a police source said.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “A child and an adult are between life and death. Shocked the country. Our hearts are with them, their families and emergency workers.” Macron described the attack as “absolutely cowardly act”.

Yael Braun-Pivet, speaker of the French National Assembly, said there was nothing more heinous than attacking children. On Thursday, the French parliament observed a minute’s silence for the attack.

Annecy, near the Swiss border, is a picturesque town in the French Alps that is popular with tourists and is also the host of the “Annecy International Animation Film Festival”, one of the world’s top animation festivals Opening Sunday (June 11).

(AFP, Reuters, AP)

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