Three days after the knife attack in Annecy, which left six injured, including four very young children, the inhabitants of Annecy gathered on Sunday, June 11, by the lake, in support of the victims. Since the drama that took place on a playground near the lake, the crowd has flocked to lay flowers, stuffed animals, drawings or heart-shaped balloons.
The mayor of Annecy, François Astorg (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV), cited the names of the six victims in the introduction to his speech: “It is first in their name that we are gathered; we hang on to hope that they recover,” he said. “Annecy has just experienced a tragedy [to which] there is no other choice but to respond with unity (…) and communion”, he continued, to “make the choice of the future against that of destruction, to build rather than hate”. Mr. Astorg himself is targeted by hate messages from the far right, which accuses him of having favored immigration.
The lives of the six injured are no longer in danger, the prosecutor announced on Saturday. A 2-year-old boy is still being treated in Grenoble, as is a girl of the same age. A 3-year-old British tourist will be able to leave Grenoble hospital “in the coming days”. The 22-month-old Dutch girl is still being treated in Geneva. A 73-year-old Portuguese walker “could be heard by the investigators”. More slightly injured, the other adult, a 78-year-old Frenchman, had quickly returned home.
“Taking on children is the most cowardly thing”
Mr. Astorg also wanted to salute, on Sunday, the “courage of Henri, Lilian, municipal agents and all those who acted heroically” on Thursday. During the attack, two municipal agents tried to stop the attacker with a shovel, a young pedal boat rental company and a mathematics teacher on an outing with pupils tried to intervene, a childminder rushed to rescue two injured children and a young tourist chased the assailant.
Emmanuel Macron had already expressed his “gratitude” and “pride” to them on Friday during an official ceremony organized at the Haute-Savoie prefecture. He had lingered in particular with Henri, the young tourist celebrated on social networks as “the hero with a backpack”.
“To attack children, (…) is obviously the most cowardly thing. It is attacking innocence, (…) those whom society must protect with all its might,” the mayor of Annecy continued on Sunday, promising that “life will sing again” in the playground. attacked and that “Annecy will rise again”.
Very moved, the crowd applauded when a singer then came to interpret Juliette Greco: “Talk to me about love, tell me tender things”.
‘No terrorist motivation’
The suspect, Abdalmasih H., was indicted on Saturday for “attempted murder” and was placed in pre-trial detention, without however the investigation being able to determine the motivations for his action. The man has remained silent since his arrest. The psychiatrist who examined him “noted the absence of frank delusional elements”, but it is still too early to comment on a possible “psychiatric pathology”, declared the prosecutor of Annecy, Line Bonnet, during a press conference on Saturday.
The hashtag
After fleeing war-torn Syria, Abdalmasih H. obtained a permanent residence permit in Sweden at the end of 2013, where he was granted asylum, which gave him refugee status. “No terrorist motivation appears at this stage,” the prosecutor reiterated. Witnesses heard him “recall his wife and daughter and pronounce the name of Jesus Christ” during the attack.
