[1/5] French soldiers secure the area after several children and an adult were injured in a knife attack in Annecy in the French Alps, France, June 8, 2023. Portal/Denis Balibouse
ANNECY, France, June 8 (Portal) – A Syrian national injured four children and an adult in a knife attack in a park in the southeastern French city of Annecy on Thursday, police said, with some of the victims remaining seriously ill in hospital.
The attacker was a Syrian national with legal refugee status in France, a police official told Portal. He was not known to security officials and his motives were unclear, an investigative source said.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that the attacker had been arrested.
Two children and one adult were in life-threatening condition, two children were slightly injured, the police said.
“Children and an adult stand between life and death. The nation is in shock,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Twitter, calling the attack “an act of absolute cowardice.”
Witnesses said at least one of the children injured in the attack was in a stroller. The incident happened at around 07:45 GMT at a lake park playground in Annecy, a town in the French Alps.
“He jumped (onto the playground), started screaming and then walked towards the strollers, repeatedly hitting the little ones with a knife,” a witness, who gave his name as Ferdinand, told BFM TV.
“Mothers were crying, everyone was running,” said George, another witness and owner of a nearby restaurant.
The TV station showed footage of several police officers overpowering a person in a park.
“Nothing is more heinous than attacking children,” National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet said on Twitter. Parliament observed a minute’s silence over the incident.
Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Geert De Clercq and Juliette Jabkhiro. Text: Geert De Clercq and Silvia Aloisi. Editors: Toby Chopra and Frances Kerry
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