‘Nation in shock’ as 4 children injured in stabbing in French Alps, 2 in critical condition
- Two of the children – believed to be aged around three – and an adult were in critical condition and fighting for their lives in hospital, a security source said
- The suspect is a Syrian in his early 30s who was granted refugee status in Sweden in April, a police source said
A man armed with a knife attacked a group of preschool children playing by a lake in the French Alps Thursday, wounding four as well as an adult and sending shock waves through the country.
The suspect is a Syrian in his early 30s who was granted refugee status in Sweden in April, a police source said.
Witnesses described the suspected knifeman running around in a frenzy, apparently attacking people at random, before he was shot by police near the banks of Lake Annecy.
“He wanted to attack everyone. I moved away and he lunged at an old man and woman and stabbed the old man,” former professional footballer Anthony Le Tallec, who was running in the park, told the local Dauphine Libere newspaper.
Another witness, named Malo, told the BFM television channel that the culprit attacked the children before the old man and was “shouting, but it wasn’t really comprehensible”.