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All four children — a 22-month-old, two 2-year-olds and a 3-year-old — were in critical condition after the attack, French public prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said in a news conference Thursday. One child was a visiting British tourist, another was Dutch, she said.
Police said the suspect, who was arrested at the scene, is a 32-year-old Syrian national, whom they identified by the first name Abdalmasih — a name used among Middle Eastern Christians.
In video circulated online, which The Washington Post verified was taken at the Annecy playground on Thursday, a man can be seen raising a knife in the air with one hand and gripping a pendant around his neck with the other, while he seems to shout, “In the name of Jesus Christ!”
The man, who wore a scarf wrapped around his head, then appears to attempt to stab people at random, jumping into an enclosed play area. He approaches a screaming woman with a stroller before attacking the child inside.
Some bystanders tried to fend him off. Voices off-camera can be heard crying out for the police.
Police said they were unable to comment on French press reports that he was carrying a cross and a Christian prayer book when arrested.
The man has had refugee status in Sweden for the past 10 years but then applied for asylum in France, according to Bonnet-Mathis. Preliminary information suggested “no apparent terrorist motive,” though anti-terrorism authorities are investigating, she said.
“We are in close contact with the French police authorities,” said Sofia Hellqvist, a spokeswoman for Swedish police.
One of the adult victims was injured by the attacker but less severely; the other adult victim was injured both in the knife attack and when police shot at the attacker, the prosecutor said. That victim was in a stable condition after undergoing surgery on Thursday, authorities said. An investigation had been opened to “specify the circumstances” of the use of firearms, the public prosecutor said.
“The Nation is in shock,” tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron. “Children and an adult are between life and death. Our thoughts are with them as well as their families and the emergency services mobilized.”
French lawmakers observed a minute of silence inside the National Assembly for the victims of the attack and their families.
Anthony Le Tallec, a former French soccer player, said in a series of Instagram videos early Thursday that he was jogging near Lake Annecy when he saw people running from the area and shouting at others to do the same. One woman shouted at him to run because someone was “stabbing everyone,” including children, he said.
Le Tallec said he saw the suspect coming in his direction while police officers chased him. The suspect ran toward an older couple, Le Tallec said, and stabbed an older man.
Le Tallec said he later saw “children on the ground.”
Part of the attack took place in front of a group of high-schoolers. “We saw some unrest and we heard people shouting, ‘He is attacking the children, he is attacking the children,’” Mathilde Fuzat, an 18-year-old student at Annecy’s Berthollet school told Le Dauphine. “We didn’t know what to do, whether to take it seriously, and then, I saw a mum grabbing children from the floor and we understood it was very, very serious.”
She said she later saw a couple putting a toddler on the ground in an apparent attempt to provide first aid.
The attack came as France is under a territory-wide alert for terrorism. In the past decade, the country has been hit by several high-profile terrorist attacks planned by individuals with links to Islamist groups.
It also falls at a time of fierce debate over European immigration policy. Far-right politicians immediately called for tighter border controls.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said now was not the time for debates about migration, and she urged “unity” and “solidarity” with the victims and their families.
Charlotte Caubel, France’s minister of state for children, said the attack was a sign of “the increase in violence in our society.”
“Once again, our children are the target,” she tweeted.
Vanessa Schlesier in Berlin and Beatriz Rios in Brussels contributed to this report.
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