According to authorities, a Syrian national attacked with a knife at a park in France on Thursday, injuring four children and one adult. Some of the victims are in severe condition in the hospital.
A police official told Reuters that a Syrian national with valid refugee status in France was responsible for the incident, which took place in the French Alpine town of Annecy. “Children and one adult are on the verge of perishing. The assault was “an act of absolute cowardice,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Twitter, adding that “the nation is in shock.” Gerald Darmanin, the French interior minister, tweeted that the assailant had been taken into custody. According to authorities, two children were just mildly harmed, while one adult and two children are in critical condition.
According to witnesses, at least one of the kids involved was in a pram. BFM TV broadcast images of multiple police officers stifling a person in a park. Yael Braun-Pivet, the speaker of the French National Assembly, declared on Twitter that attacking children was “abominable.” To commemorate the occurrence, the French parliament conducted a moment of silence.
Witnesses noted that several of the kids looked to be extremely young. According to a guy who talked with the broadcaster BFMTV, he witnessed first responders treating “little bodies, perhaps 3 or 4 years old.”
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Antoine Armand, a local legislator, said that the kids had been attacked on a playground. Speaking to BFMTV from the Paris National Assembly, he said that “very young” children were among the casualties and that they had been “savagely attacked.”He said that the attack happened near to an elementary school. Four children were among the injured, according to both national police and an Interior Ministry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to discuss the evolving situation. According to the police, two of the kids had serious injuries, while the other two only had minor ones. According to police, one adult also received injuries that may have been fatal.
The official from the Interior Ministry and the police both issued warnings, saying that since the complete circumstances weren’t yet known, the number of injured may change. Lawmakers in Paris paused a discussion to observe a minute of silence for the victims.
Yal Braun-Pivet, the assembly president, said: “There are some very young children who are in critical condition. I invite you to respect a minute of silence for them, for their families, and so that, we hope, the consequences of this very grave attack do not lead to the nation grieving.”
