PARIS: A man with a knife stabbed eight people in France including four small children and an adult on Thursday. Three of the victims are left with life-threatening injuries while the suspect was arrested.
The children were about three-year olds playing in a park and the assailant is reportedly a Syrian asylum seeker. The incident took place in Annecy, a small lakeside town in the Alps. Here is what we know so far:
The children were about three-year olds playing in a park and the assailant is reportedly a Syrian asylum seeker. The incident took place in Annecy, a small lakeside town in the Alps. Here is what we know so far:
- Interior Minster
Gerald Darmanin said the attack took place in a square in the lakeside town of Annecy. - A local lawmaker, Antoine Armand, tweeted that children were attacked on a playground. He called the attack “abominable.”
- National police also said that four children were among the wounded, and that two of them suffered life-threatening injuries. The other two children were lightly injured, police said.
- Police said one adult also suffered life-threatening wounds. Police also cautioned that the injury count was evolving.
- According to the reports, the attack took place at around 9.45 a.m. in a park. French media outlets have said that the suspect has identified himself to police as a Syrian asylum seeker and has been arrested.
- An Interior Ministry official cautioned that the number of wounded could evolve because the full details weren’t yet clear.
- In Paris, lawmakers interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims.
- President Emmanuel Macron called it an attack of absolute cowardice. “Attack of absolute cowardice this morning in a park in Annecy. Children and an adult are fighting for their lives. The nation is shocked. Our thoughts are with them as well as their families and the emergency services,” he wrote on Twitter.
Watch At least 6 children injured in a knife attack in France
