This Thursday, June 8, Annecy was the scene of a violent knife attack. Six people, including four young children, were injured on a playground in the large park bordering the lake, according to a security source contacted by L’Express. The vital prognosis is engaged for two children and an adult.
What happened ?
The man attacked around 9:45 a.m. children aged around three who were near the Jardin de l’Europe, a very busy park located on the shores of Lake Annecy.
According to various testimonies, the man then tried to flee from the playground and attacked an elderly person before being arrested very quickly by the police. “He wanted to attack everyone. I got out of the way and he went straight for a grandpa and a grandma, and he stabs the grandpa,” confided to the Dauphine Libere former Liverpool and Auxerre player Anthony Le Tallec, who witnessed the attack.
“It was a little unreal […] he was shouting, it was not necessarily understandable what he was saying. He preyed on babies […] he fled, the police arrived. They tried to stop him at first without opening fire, when he understood that he was trapped he attacked an elderly person and there they shot him in the legs”, for his part testified Malo, a witness contacted by BFMTV who was near the playing area.
According to Dauphiné liberatedthe victims were transferred to the Annecy Genevois hospital center and the witnesses were taken to a building close to the scene of the tragedy, the surroundings of which were cordoned off by a large police force.
Who is the aggressor?
According to a security source interviewed by L’Express, the assailant is called Abdalmasih H. He was born in 1991 and is 32 years old. He is “of Syrian nationality” and “had been living in Sweden since 2013”, where he obtained refugee status, a residence permit valid “until 2025”. He is married to a Swedish woman and has one child, of Swedish nationality. The obtaining of his Swedish residence permit took place “prior to his application” for asylum in France. This was introduced on November 28, 2022 at Ofpra, and refused on April 26, 2023. He received a notification at the beginning of June, which gave him one month to appeal to the National Court for the Right of Asylum (CNDA ). Before this deadline, it was not possible to present him with an Obligation to leave France (OQTF), to Sweden.
Abdalmasih H. is unknown to all files, we learned from a police source. The terrorist character or not of the attack is being assessed, according to a source familiar with the matter.
According to this same security source, the attacker “declared himself a Christian from Syria” in his asylum application file in France. He had a Christian cross on him at the time.
“He had a bandana or a turban, he took it off in front of me. He didn’t say anything special,” testified ex-footballer Anthony Le Tallec, who was jogging by the lake.
“An attack of absolute cowardice”, according to Macron
Emmanuel Macron denounced Thursday an “attack of absolute cowardice” in Annecy. “The Nation is in shock,” said the head of state on Twitter. “Our thoughts are with them as well as their families and the rescue services mobilized,” he added.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin posted a tweet: “Several people including children were injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy. The individual was arrested thanks to the very rapid intervention of the law enforcement”.
Deputies and members of the government observed Thursday a minute of silence in the National Assembly after this attack. The President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet invited this minute of silence “for them, for their families”, after this “serious attack”.
“Appalling attack this morning on the Pâquier in Annecy. All my thoughts to the victims and the families”, tweeted the mayor François Astorg asking the public “to avoid the Pâquier sector for the smooth running of the operations”.