FOUR CHILDREN INJURED IN FRENCH KNIFE ATTACK
A knifeman entered a children’s playground in a park in Annecy, France and carried out an attack.
Police have confirmed that the suspect is a 31-year-old Syrian. He had refugee status in Sweden.
Four children, aged between one and three, were injured and are being treated in hospital. Two adults were also injured, one of them is in critical condition.
An onlooker recorded the incident on their cellphone. Several news outlets have posted some of the footage, but a lot of it has been condemned as too graphic to broadcast.
The footage shows the small playground in the Alpine village as normal with children running around. Reports suggest that the man then comes into the playground with a knife in his hand. Very quickly screams can be heard as the man starts looking for children to attack.
His first victim was a child in a pram.
At a news conference, authorities said the attacker has “no criminal or psychiatric record” and that there “doesn’t seem to be any kind of terrorist motivation”.
The BBC reports that police say the suspect has refugee status in Sweden and recently came to France, leaving behind a wife and three-year-old daughter.
He applied for asylum status in France last year but was declined.
The BBC further reports that during the incident, the attacker invoked the name of Jesus Christ.
Image credit: Sky News