The knifeman accused of stabbing four children and two adults in a tranquil French alpine town had been denied asylum in the country just a few days before he launched the senseless attack, a minister has claimed. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the suspect had tried to claim asylum in France, but it was refused on Sunday because he had been granted asylum in Sweden 10 years ago.
Mr Darmanin said the suspect entered France legally, adding: “For some reasons we don’t really understand, he applied for asylum in Switzerland, in Italy and in France, which he didn’t need to do as he already had asylum in Sweden for the past 10 years.”
The Swedish Migration Agency confirmed the suspect was granted permanent residency in 2013.
While the agency didn’t identify the man, it said the suspect sought Swedish citizenship in 2017 and 2018, both denied, and applied again in August last year.
French police said the man arrested following the attack at a lakeside park in Annecy is a 31-year-old Syrian.
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In the immediate aftermath of the attack, local media reported one elderly man and six children had been stabbed, with at least two youngsters left in critical condition.
Annecy Mayor Francois Astorg told French media on Thursday evening the children were “stable” and “out of the operating room”.
But the Telegraph reported a three-year-old British girl was fighting for her life in a hospital in Grenoble, a city approximately an hour and a half away from Annecy.
Among the other children victims of the attack were a 22-month-old child, believed to be either Dutch or German, a two-year-old boy and his three-year-old cousin from France.
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Among the adult casualties, one was seriously injured, local prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said, both by a knife wound and by a bullet wound shot by a police officer trying to detain the attacker.
Ms Bonnet-Mathis told a press conference on Thursday afternoon the suspect’s motives remain unclear, but do not appear to be related to terrorism.
The man arrested has no criminal or psychiatric record and appeared to have acted alone, she added.
A chilling video showing the attack shared online shows a man brandishing a blade as people scream for help.
The man can be seen wearing dark glasses and has his head covered by a blue scarf.
A separate clip seemingly shows a man shouting in English, “In the name of Jesus Christ” while waving the knife in the air.
He then slashed at another man carrying a rucksack after he had attempted to approach the knifeman.
A woman was filmed screaming for help while trying to push a stroller away as she noticed being approached by the man holding the knife.
She bravely attempted to fend off the knife attack before the man leaned forward and stabbed down into the pushchair.
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