Four Children Injured In French Playground Stabbing

Four toddlers and two pensioners were stabbed in a knife attack in a French mountain town of Annecy on Thursday, with the government identifying the suspected assailant as a Syrian refugee.

The video footage of the attack around a children’s playground was posted on social media, capturing a man wearing dark glasses and a blue scarf covering his head, wielding a knife as people screamed for help.

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According to Reuters, at about 9:46 am, the 31-year-old suspect jumped a low wall into the play park and repeatedly lunged at a child in a stroller.

The man shouted, “In the name of Jesus Christ” as he waved his knife in the air while the crowds panicked and asked for police.

French news agency AFP reported that the suspect was carrying a prayer book when he launched this attack.

Two injured children and one adult were sent to hospital in a life-threatening condition, while the other victims suffered minor injuries.

So far, police have not publicly released his name.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the assault was an act of “absolute cowardice.”

“Children and an adult are between life and death,” he said.

“The nation is in shock,” Macron tweeted.

French prime minister Élisabeth Borne described the attack as “savage”, and the country had been “shaken by this hateful, indescribable act”. 

The man was identified as an “isolated individual” and homeless, who previously asked for asylum in France. The application had not been processed because he already obtained refugee status in Sweden.

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