The health of children injured in the knife attack in Annecy, France, began improving on Friday and President Emmanuel Macron commended the courage of all who intervened during the tragedy while the attacker’s detention was extended.
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The news about the health of the four children injured on Thursday is “positive”, said the head of state, who traveled there with his wife. Among the injured children, the Dutch girl is “out of danger,” according to the Dutch foreign minister.
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron visited the families of the three children hospitalized in Grenoble – a fourth was admitted in Geneva – and spoke to the caregivers.
The presidential couple then traveled to Annecy, first to the hospital and then to the prefecture, to meet those who provided “aid and support” during the tragedy that rocked this peaceful city in the northern Alps on Thursday.
“They were great,” the head of state said during a ceremony where he expressed “his gratitude and pride” to the police, firefighters, carers and witnesses to the tragedy who tried to intervene.
“Attacking children is the most barbaric act there is,” he said. “There are things that are not digestible. The violence behind these acts is unprecedented. We don’t have to get used to it.
Since his arrest, Abdalmasih H. has not given any explanation for his gesture and has “obstructed police custody,” particularly by “rolling on the ground,” according to a source close to the investigation.
“Investigations are ongoing”, in particular “to determine his personality, his career and his activities since his stay in France”.
“He’s completely silent,” added another source close to the probe.
Had the psychiatric evaluation he underwent on Friday morning ended with a suspended sentence, police custody would have been lifted and the doctors would have taken over.
According to Annecy prosecutors, his motives at this point appear to be “without any obvious terrorist motive”.
With no criminal record and no fixed address, this 31-year-old man, who had lived in Sweden for ten years, left his family to go to France a few months ago and has been living in Annecy since autumn 2022. In fact, when he died, he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
This father of a three-year-old child found himself in a legal situation when he arrived in France. In a new asylum application filed in France in November 2022, he declared himself a “Christian from Syria,” according to a police source. When he was arrested he was carrying a Christian cross.
The attacker, wearing black shorts and a blue scarf tied over his head, clearly aimed at the children in his fatal attack, according to images of the tragedy confirmed by AFP. We see him in this video stretching his arms to the sky and shouting “in the name of Jesus!” in English.
Also seen in the images is a young man carrying a backpack trying to push it back. His name is Henri and he is one of those who “showed courage and intervened without asking questions”, as President Macron stressed to the prefecture.
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. “I sat there and he came like that, he certainly wanted to make another sacrifice. I can imagine the stress of the families, the children and their loved ones and those who saw what happened. “It’s terrible that children in particular are attacked like this,” he said on BFM-TV.
The attack, which took place in broad daylight, shook the residents of Annecy and the thousands of tourists who attended at the start of the summer season.
With tears in their eyes, dozens of shocked people came to lay flowers or gather in front of the small makeshift memorial on the playground. Since Thursday, bouquets of white roses, stuffed animals, candles and messages of support have been stacked in front of the wooden castles and slides.
“Innocence under attack, what a sadness!! “A very touching thought for the small victims and others who were injured,” we can read under the handwritten messages placed in front of a small altar decorated with candles and white roses.
Thierry Deconinck, a local resident, came to put roses in this playground where he takes his children “practically every Sunday”. He feels “sadness, pain for the family, a little hate, also because the world is going crazy”. A mass is scheduled at the end of the afternoon in Annecy Cathedral.