And knife in handinside the playground of an area of the lakefront of Annencynell’French Haute-Savoie. One, two, three up to six people affected. Then the escape attempt and the arrest. While all around the rescued they rush to recover the bodies of the wounded to transport them to the hospital. Four are childrentwo of them are in life threatening, as well as the eldest stabbed. One of the children, in conditions of “absolute emergency“was transferred by ambulance to Geneva, in Switzerland. The victims are aged between 22 months the three years, writes the local newspaper The liberated dolphin. The four are a two-year-old boy and his slightly older sister, a 3-year-old British girl and a 22-month-old German boy. Another victim is a man from 70 years old who was sitting on a bench. But checks are also being carried out on one of the two adults attacked: one may have also been hit by a bullet fired by police towards the assailant.
The attacker, who came into action near the Garden of Europe, was arrested inside the same park. Is called Abdalmasih H.it’s a Syrian asylum seeker aged 32 unknown to the archives of police and ofintelligence. He had applied for asylum in France on November 28, 2022 and, meanwhile, had achieved the status of refugee in Sweden by decision of 26 April. The man is in fact married to a Swedish citizen with whom he had a relationship son, who is now 3 years old. In its asylum applicationthe attacker, who has lived in Sweden for ten years, said he was a cristiano of Syria. He also had a Christian cross on him, he learns Le Figaro from a source close to the case.
The assailant began to “jump“, then “to shout” and “he headed towards i strollers“, starting to rage “with the knife, repeatedly, on the children”, says one of the witnesses. Another person who was missing said he saw “children and a mother on the ground”: when the attacker “saw that he was surrounded by the police, he went towards a couple and left directly with the knife against a grampawho was there with his wife, and has it stabbed”. An ice cream vendor who works in the park where the attack took place, he said he had already seen the attacker in recent days, as he looked around.
After an attempt to escape, the officers shot the man and hit him several times, especially at legs. The first Elizabeth Borne and the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin they are on their way to the site. “It’s an attack of a cowardice absolute”, wrote the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in a tweet. “Children and an adult are between life and death, the nation is in shock. Our thoughts go out to them, their families and the emergency services in action.”
Attack of absolute cowardice this morning in a park in Annecy. Children and an adult are between life and death. The Nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with them as well as their families and the emergency services mobilized.
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 8, 2023
One of the two stabbed adults was subsequently also injured by gunshots from the police who intervened on the spot. The Public Prosecutor’s Office, the French media report, has opened a case in this regard investigation to specify “the circumstances” in which the police opened fire during the intervention to arrest the man.