The four small children who were stabbed in a park in Annecy, in the southeast of France, are currently in a stable condition, according to officials.
The infants and toddlers, who range in age from one to three, are receiving medical care.
After entering a playground to carry out the attack, police overpowered and apprehended the knifeman.
One of the injured includes a three-year-old British youngster, and another is Dutch. In addition, two adults were harmed, one of them is in critical condition.
The suspect, a Syrian man aged 31, who had refugee status in Sweden, has been identified by police.
There are facts in this narrative that some readers could find upsetting.
Regional deputy Antoine Armand called the attack “abominable” and stated that while there was an investigation, “very little” was known at the time.
Too gruesome for broadcast, the attack’s video footage posted to social media depicts a little playground where everyday activities are continuing. Parents and other adults are there, and there are kids running around.
Screams rapidly break out after a man enters brandishing a knife. He definitely intends to attack kids, and he does so by attacking one using a stroller.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne visited the scene of the incident.
The attacker has “no criminal or psychiatric record,” Ms. Borne stated during a press conference.
According to Annecy prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis, the child victims were between the ages of 22 months and three years.
According to her, “there doesn’t seem to be any sort of terrorist motivation.”
According to the police, the suspect just moved to France with his wife and daughter, who is three years old, and has refugee status in Sweden. He claimed to be a Christian from Syria in a last year unsuccessful asylum application for refugee status in France.
The attacker referred to Jesus Christ throughout the encounter.
According to a woman who claimed to be his ex-wife, her ex-partner was a Christian, she told BFM TV.
For four months, he doesn’t call me. She added, adding that he had not previously displayed a violent streak, “[Our relationship] ended because] we lived in Sweden and he did not want to reside in Sweden anymore.
Knife assaults have been common in France in recent years, frequently committed by lone young men with a history of petty criminality and a connection to the Islamist movement. It is obvious that this attack is of a unique kind.
Most politicians have so far avoided drawing conclusions too quickly, but it is certain that the incident will contribute to the immigration discussion.
Tonight in Annecy, the sky is getting darker, casting shadows on memorials of white roses placed on the playground wall. In the wind, a heart-covered child’s drawing flutters. “Horror passes; love remains,” reads a message sent to the four youngsters who were stabbed in this location.
And this afternoon, as the flowers started to bloom here, the kids started coming back as well. By early evening, the playground was once more crowded with their joy, oblivious to the rows of television cameras set up nearby.
However, individuals who were there when the incident took place here and saw the spectacular response from the emergency services reported that they were still disturbed and emotional.
France has been shocked by the toddler attack in a well-known vacation area; the tragedy has spread far beyond this town, and the reason for it is yet unknown.
As in Annecy, the tributes and inquiries increase.
Before fleeing the scene and stabbing an elderly man nearby, the suspect is believed to have attacked the kids, some of whom were in pushchairs, as they were enjoying themselves in the park.
When police became involved, the offender was shot in the legs.
Roads are blocked near the attack site, and the National Assembly of France has held a minute of silence.
The country was “shocked” by the “act of cowardice,” President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.
As he travels to the US, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated, “All our sympathies are with those injured by this horrific crime, including a British child – and with their families. “I’ve been in touch with President Macron, and we stand ready to offer any assistance that we can.”
Eleanor Vincent, a witness, told the BBC that when she got closer to the lake, she “knew something horrible had happened.”
People were going about their daily lives or vacations, just like I was. There is no other way to put it, in my opinion.
