A man armed with a knife sowed terror on Thursday morning June 8 in a park on the shores of Lake Annecy, seriously injuring several children, before being arrested. Five people, including four minors aged 22 months to 3 years, were still, Thursday evening, in a state of absolute emergency. Among the victims, two are still “in a vital emergency” on Friday, according to government spokesman Olivier Véran who spoke on Franceinfo. Le Monde takes stock of what we know.
• An attack in a playground
According to the prefecture of Haute-Savoie, the facts took place shortly after 9:30 a.m. in the gardens of Europe, which are part of Pâquier, a park located on the shores of Lake Annecy, a few tens of meters from the ‘city Hall. There are several playgrounds and a school.
According to witnesses, the assailant, dressed in black shorts, a scarf tied over his head, attacked children in a playground. Referring to the assailant, a witness told BFM-TV: “He jumped [into the area], he started screaming and directly he walked towards the strollers and repeatedly stabbed the little ones. A man then tries to put him to flight by hitting him with a backpack. The aggressor leaves the playground. He brandishes his knife with his right hand, and seems to want to show the witnesses with the other hand, by turning on himself, the pendant attached to his neck, a crucifix. On the videos filmed by passers-by, we can hardly guess his words. He seems to be repeating, twice, “In the name of Jesus Christ.” Then the assailant retraces his steps, trotting, and enters the kindergarten again, pursued by the man with the backpack. He again injures two children in a pram, despite the desperate efforts of a woman trying to protect them.
According to various testimonies, the man then tried to flee from the playground and attacked a 78-year-old man who was trying to protect his wife. The police opened fire, accidentally wounding the old man, then managed to immobilize the assailant a few meters from the lake. The emergency services were alerted at 9:41 a.m., the intervention triggered immediately and the attacker arrested four minutes later, according to a timing released by the police.
The young man with the backpack has been identified by Internet users: his name is Henri, a 24-year-old pilgrim who has been touring the most beautiful cathedrals in France for two and a half months and describes himself on his social networks as “philosopher and explorer”.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, spoke at a press conference early Thursday afternoon alongside Line Bonnet-Mathis, public prosecutor of Annecy, and Gérald Darmanin, Minister of l inside. Friday, the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, must go to the victims and “to all the people who in Annecy contributed to bringing them help and support”.
• Six injured, including four children
At least six people, including four children aged 22 months to 3 years, were injured. The four minors – two French, a Dutchman and an Englishman – are “in a state of absolute emergency”, the prosecutor said on Thursday.
She said that two young tourists, a Briton and a Dutchman, were among the victims. A 78-year-old man was also lightly hit by police trying to arrest the assailant. The prefecture has opened an information unit, which can be reached at 04-50-33-61-33.
• The suspect: a Syrian who had refugee status in Sweden
The alleged perpetrator is a man born in 1991 of Syrian nationality, Abdelmasih H., who lived for ten years in Sweden, where he obtained refugee status in 2013.
He was married and has a 3-year-old child with a Swedish national, whom he divorced last year. According to the Swedish Migration Board, he had applied for citizenship for the first time four years after his arrival, but too early, the minimum period of presence being five years. He had made a second request in 2018, also refused without knowing the cause. According to his ex-wife, he left Sweden before receiving the answer to his last request, “eight months ago”. From the point of view of European Union (EU) law, the man was in a regular situation.
The alleged aggressor, “a political refugee who would be homeless, arrived in Annecy in the fall of 2022” was “neither under the influence of narcotics nor under the influence of alcohol”, declared the prosecutor of the Republic of Annecy, Line Bonnet-Mathis, in front of the press. “For reasons that are not well explained, he also applied for asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported on TF1.
On November 28, 2022, he submitted an asylum application to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra), the refusal of which was notified to him on Sunday June 4 because he had obtained refugee status in Sweden.
That same Sunday, the suspect was checked by the police because “he would have washed in Lake Annecy”, added Mr. Darmanin. “A handrail was made and there was nothing particularly wrong with it,” he added. Asked about the link between the refusal of the asylum request and the attacker’s act four days later, the minister spoke of a “disturbing coincidence”.
In his application to Ofpra, he presented himself as a “Christian from Syria”, according to a police source. His name also did not appear in any police file, he was not known to “any intelligence service” and has no “identified psychiatric history”, according to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
Early Thursday evening, the alleged assailant was in police custody at the Annecy police station. He had no serious injuries, according to the prosecutor. According to a police source at Le Monde, the investigators had not managed to establish contact with him on Thursday evening: very agitated, the man was “screaming” while rolling on the ground and shouting “kill me!” ” (kill me). A psychiatric examination is scheduled for Friday.
• “No apparent terrorist motive”
The assailant carried “a single weapon, which is in our possession”, added the prosecutor. The individual “is not injured and he will be heard on his motives, which today remain to be determined”, she continued. The prosecutor of Haute-Savoie announced her placement in police custody at the premises of the Annecy police station for attempted murder.
Abdelmasih H. wore a Christian cross and said in English the phrase “In the name of Jesus Christ” at the time of the attack. Neither the prosecutor nor the Prime Minister, during their press briefing, mentioned these statements or made any comments on this subject.
At this stage, there is “no apparent terrorist motive,” the prosecutor said. An “assessment” is underway, “as is the custom,” she continued. “As it stands, we don’t have any elements that could lead us to believe that the motivations are terrorist,” she insisted. The file is nevertheless, as is customary, still in “evaluation” at the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office.
• An “attack of absolute cowardice”, according to Emmanuel Macron
The attack sowed fear in this usually very calm water city. “What happened is unacceptable, appalling. It never happened in Annecy,” said environmentalist mayor François d’Astorg, expressing his “anger” during a press briefing.
Emmanuel Macron denounced an “attack of absolute cowardice”. “Children and an adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with them as well as their families and the rescuers mobilized, ”wrote the head of state on Twitter.
This tragedy caused great emotion in the National Assembly, where a minute of silence was observed at the request of President Yaël Braun-Pivet, “for them, for their families”, after this “very serious attack”. Speaking on behalf of the government, the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, denounced from the Palais-Bourbon “barbarism”.
Laurent Wauquiez (Les Républicains), president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, where the facts took place, denounced for his part “the horror, again”. “This attack on children is the pinnacle of abomination,” he added, thanking the “police officers for their courage in apprehending the assailant.” ” How is it possible ? Attacking little ones! Hit them with a knife! Our heart is in pieces having to live with it, ”reacted the former “rebellious” presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. ” The horror. Emotion and anger, ”wrote the boss of the socialist deputies, Boris Vallaud, still on Twitter. “Fear and horror”, reacted from his side Marine Le Pen.
