Four children and two adults were injured in the knife drama in Annecy in southeastern France. For the four children, the situation is critical, according to prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis.
This also applies to one of the injured adults, who was stabbed by the man and then accidentally shot by the police, when the perpetrator was about to be arrested. Prosecutors have opened a special investigation to investigate that incident, reports AFP.
One of the injured children is from the UK and one is from the Netherlands, according to police.
The perpetrator’s motive is not yet clear, but Line Bonnet-Mathis says at a press conference that it is not an act of terrorism.
The suspect has been married to a Swedish woman and has a child with her, write several French newspapers, including Le Figaro.
Got rejected
The man is in his 30s, comes from Syria and received a residence permit in Sweden ten years ago, reports the news agency AP. According to Le Figaro, he has been staying in Annecy since October last year, and then applied for asylum.
— For reasons we do not know, he has applied for asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France, says French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin to TV channel TF1.
The man was refused asylum on the grounds that he has a residence permit in Sweden. According to Darmanin, the decision came on Sunday.
Police at the scene of the stabbing in Annecy. Terrible events
Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) tells TT that she cannot yet comment on the data, which she has noted.
“These are questions that must be put to the responsible authorities because it is now the subject of a preliminary investigation,” she told TT in Luxembourg.
– These are terrible events which of course took us very hard today when we sat in the meeting (on the EU’s migration pact).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs writes in an email to TT that they are aware of the media information about the man, but that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no ongoing case in this case”.
The crime took place shortly before 10 am in the park Les jardins de l’Europe, which is located by Lake Annecy in the central parts of the city, a popular tourist destination and excursion destination for the area’s families with children.
During Thursday, among other things, student celebrations took place nearby.
“Heard screams”
A witness tells France Bleu Pays de Savoie that she first thought the man was playing with the children, but then saw him stab a little girl and then a child in a pram.
According to another witness, the man has been seen in the park daily for the past two months.
“He was there every day and people noticed him because he was completely alone,” the witness told France Bleu Pays de Savoie.
Mayor François Astorg says according to Le Monde that the park could be reopened to the public in the late afternoon. He also praised the police for their quick response, which he said may have saved several lives.
President Emmanuel Macron signed Twitter :
“A terribly cowardly attack took place this morning in a park in Annecy. Children and an adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock.”