Four young children stabbed during a frenzied attack by a Syrian asylum seeker in France remained in hospital intensive care Friday as investigators worked to unravel the motives of their assailant.
A three-year-old British child is among the injured, another is Dutch. Two adults were also hurt, with one in a critical condition.
As Breitbart London reported, the four child victims — aged between 22 months and three years old — were rushed to hospitals in the French city of Grenoble and Geneva in neighboring Switzerland.
A 31-year-old Syrian asylum seeker was arrested by French police immediately after the savage mass stabbing in Annecy, France.
Young Children in Critical Condition After Mass Stabbing in France Syrian Asylum Seeker Arrested https://t.co/2aaW0wQyNH
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 8, 2023
AP reports French authorities said the suspect had recently been refused asylum in France, because Sweden had already granted him permanent residency and refugee status a decade ago.
Lead prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said the man’s motives were unknown. He was armed with a folding knife, she said.
Videos posted to social media appeared to show a man with a beard, wearing a headscarf, dark sunglasses and shorts which revealed a leg tattoo running around in the park and chasing people with a knife in his hand.
A woman with a child in a stroller in the playground appeared to confront the suspect as he approached in one video seen by CBS News and she could be heard shouting at him in English, “No! Get away from the kids!”
People sing the French national anthem and wave the national flag as they gather on June 8, 2023 near the playground in the “Jardins de l’Europe” in Annecy, where a man stabbed four preschool children and injured two adults in an attack. (OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP via Getty)
Flowers are seen at the children’s park in Paquier park, where a knife attack took place, on June 8, 2023 in Annecy, France. (Richard Bord/Getty Images)
Two adults also suffered knife wounds — life-threatening for one them, she said. One of the adults was hurt both by the attacker’s knife and later by a shot fired by police as they were making the arrest.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were expected at the scene of the attack later on Friday to meet families and people who came to their aid.
Macron had condemned what he called an “absolutely cowardly attack” late Thursday night.
“Children and an adult are between life and death,” he said in a tweet. “The nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with them as well as with their families and the emergency services on the scene.”