In a shocking development, multiple people including children stabbed with a knife in France's Alps town on Thursday. According to the authorities, the attacker, whose identity has not been revealed, was arrested.
Taking to the microblogging site, French President Emmanuel Macron termed the incident a "cowardly attack on children". Condemning the heinous act, Macron said emergency services have been mobilised.
"Attack of absolute cowardice this morning in a park in Annecy. 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 emergency services mobilized," he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the attack took place in a square in the lakeside town of Annecy. In a short tweet, he said police have detained the attacker. “Several people including children have been injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy,” he tweeted.
Children were playing before stabbing incident
Witnesses said some of the children appeared very young. A man who spoke to broadcaster BFMTV said he saw first-aiders working on “little bodies, 3 or 4 years old, perhaps.” A local lawmaker, Antoine Armand, said the children were attacked on a playground. Speaking to BFMTV from the National Assembly building in Paris, he said the victims included “very young” children and that they were “savagely attacked.” The attack took place close to a primary school, he said.
National police and an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak about the developing situation both said that four children were among the wounded.
Police said two of the children suffered life-threatening injuries and that the other two were lightly injured. Police said one adult also suffered life-threatening wounds. Multiple media reported that the attacker was a Syrian who had asylum refugee status-- a claim that authorities are yet to confirm.
Both police and the Interior Ministry official cautioned that the number of wounded could evolve because the full details weren’t yet clear. In Paris, lawmakers interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims. The assembly president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said: “There are some very young children who are in critical condition and 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.”
(With inputs from agency)
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