There are places where it seems like nothing ever happens, or at least nothing bad happens. Annecy, a prosperous town nestled between the peaks of Haute-Savoie, is one of those places. And Le Pâquier, the park with meadows and trees on the banks of the lake, is an oasis of calm and well-being in this corner of the French Alps. Shouting “In the name of Jesus Christ” and armed with a small knife, a man broke into Le Pâquier that Thursday morning and everything exploded in a frenzy of blood and terror. He began stabbing babies and young children playing in a children’s play area where mothers and caregivers were usually present at the time. It was 9:45 a.m. The sun was shining, the athletes ran along the lake shore, it was an early summer day.
At sunset, a gray veil had settled over the city of 125,000. The other playgrounds in the center were empty. The old carousel from the 1960s has been closed. People, some regulars at the park, came to the scene, chatted, left flowers and a message. “I cried, I cried,” said Sanae, a 21-year-old woman covered in a headscarf and carrying a stroller carrying Wassim, her nine-year-old son, next to the playground crowded with cameras and journalists. Months. “If we can’t be safe in Annecy, we can’t be anywhere.”
After seriously injuring four children and one adult, the man left the place. First on foot. Then, seeing that some passers-by were following him, he quickened his pace. About five minutes later, police found him stabbing another adult. The agents fired, accidentally injuring the person attacked. The four children, aged between 22 months and three years, are in “an absolute state of emergency,” according to Republic Attorney Line Bonnet-Mathis.
Non-child plusieurs blessed by a single arm with a canopy in a square in Annecy. The individual was entrusted with a request for the armed forces to intervene very quickly.
— Gerald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) June 8, 2023
The attacker was arrested and identified as a 32-year-old Syrian refugee. He was in France for a few months after spending almost a decade in Sweden, where he obtained the papers that allowed him to travel across Europe. He declared himself a “Christian from Syria”. At the time of the attack, he was carrying some prints of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. The authorities have ruled out terrorist motives for the time being: the man had neither a police nor a psychiatric criminal record. He is being investigated for attempted murder. The horror of the attack – in Annecy, in France and beyond – can be explained by the age of the victims and the cruelty of the crime. Some were babies, they carried them in a cart; others hardly walked. In France, which has been plagued by attacks, some with knives, for the past decade, terrorism is the first thing many think of when faced with such events, but it quickly became clear that this was something else.
“I was scared this morning,” admits Makram, a 44-year-old Franco-Lebanese man who went to the park with his nine- and 11-year-old children to lay a flower. This driver-delivery driver repeats what everyone in Annecy says: “That in Annecy! Exactly in Annecy! You get the impression that you are no longer safe anywhere.”
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Information about the attacker was known throughout the day. He was married to a woman in Sweden, he has a three-year-old daughter, he lived in France without a fixed address, he had been visiting the park for a few weeks, where he greeted the regulars with “good morning”. ” Something more. According to the Annecy Line Bonnet-Mathis prosecutor, the attacker had not consumed alcohol or drugs and had no accomplice. He obtained refugee status in Sweden, so he had papers to move around in European territory. He also had in France applied for asylum, but it was shelved after the Swedish authorities received a positive response.
The perpetrator of the attack in Annecy in the French Alps.
In a video circulated on social networks, a bearded man wearing sunglasses, a headscarf over his hair and a knife in his right hand can be seen with random children or babies in their prams and the women who carried them , attacks. They cared . The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, wrote on the social network Twitter: “Absolute cowardice attack this morning in a park in Annecy. Several children and one adult stand between life and death. The nation is shocked. Our thoughts are with them, their families and the mobilized relief teams.”
The first news of the attack coincided with a tense debate in the Paris National Assembly over pension reform. The President of the Chamber, Yaël Braun-Pivet, adjourned the session to observe a minute’s silence. But there was no political truce. The opposition has accused the leader of the Macronist majority, Aurore Bergé, of “instrumentalizing” the attack, regretting that debate on a proposal to repeal the law continued in the Assembly amid a “shock” gripping the country .
The leader of the far-right National Regrouping party, Jordan Bardella, said on Twitter: “After the Annecy drama, we must question our entire migration policy and a set of European rules.” We must equip ourselves with all means to act and control over a situation beyond the control of the government.” Prime Minister Borne said in Annecy: “The investigation will make it possible to determine the attacker’s trajectory and profile.” But today is the time for emotions.”
When night fell, near the park where the event took place, there were more journalists than Annecy residents. The playground was no longer cordoned off. Sanae, the woman who carried her nine-month-old son in the stroller, thought the same could happen to her. Luckily, she says, she never comes in the morning. His sister is coming, but not this Thursday: “He had a feeling,” he says.
A cyclist stops and regrets that the park, where some children are playing on the swings, has not been sealed. His name is Guy, he’s 60 years old, he’s endowed like a pro. “Tell your children not to play,” he asks the children’s father. “This should be a sanctuary.” Just a few hours ago, a man was stabbing babies here, but like so many crime scenes, he’s beginning to contemplate whether to return to his daily chores in the future or be a space for remembrance. It may depend on whether the wounded survive.
Under the flowers, someone left them a handwritten note: “Children, I don’t know you. In this hour you fight. I bet on you and your courage. Love is. The terror passes. seem!”
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