France stabbing sees children ‘savagely attacked’ in Annecy knife ramage

A Syrian national wounded four young children and an adult in a knife attack in a park in the southeastern French town of Annecy on Thursday, police said, and some of the victims were in critical condition.

The attacker was a Syrian national with legal refugee status in France, a police official told Reuters. He was not known to security agencies and his motives were unclear, an investigative source said. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that the attacker had been arrested. BFM TV showed footage of several policemen overpowering an individual in the park.

Two children and one adult were in life-threatening condition, while two children were slightly hurt, police said. The wounded children were aged between 22 months and 3 years, they said.

“Children and one adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Twitter, calling the attack “an act of absolute cowardice”.

Former Liverpool footballer Anthony Le Tallec has said he witnessed the stabbing attack in a lakeside park in the town of Annecy on Thursday morning that left a number of children badly injured.

Four young children and an adult were injured in the incident, which began when a man armed with a knife entered their playground, according to police, with two of the children and the adult battling life-threatening injuries.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

Mr Le Tallec, who retired in 2021 and now works as a coach at the Alpine town’s football club said: “I was running by the lake and I saw around ten people running in the opposite direction to me.”

Witnesses said at least one of the children wounded in the attack was in a stroller.

“He jumped [in the playground], started shouting and then went towards the strollers, repeatedly hitting the little ones with a knife,” a witness who gave his name as Ferdinand told BFM TV.

“Mothers were crying, everybody was running,” said George, another witness and owner of a nearby restaurant.

Former Liverpool FC footballer Anthony Le Tallec says he witnessed part of the attack.

Speaking in a video on Instagram, he says he was running by the lake in Annecy, and recalls people running towards him telling him to flee – having themselves seen a knifeman attacking children.

Le Tallec says the suspect then appeared in front of him, chased by police officers.

“He came near me, so I moved, I moved away,” he says.

Le Tallec adds: “I said to the cops, ‘shoot him! Kill him!’

“He attacked once, twice and then they started to shoot him.”

Several children – all around the age of three – have been stabbed in an attack in the town of Annecy in the French alps.

President Emmanuel Macron called the attack an act of “absolute cowardice” and said the “nation is in shock”.

A man armed with a knife is believed to have entered a children’s playground in a park near the town’s renowned lake, according to local media reports. French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

Four young children and an adult were injured, according to police. Initial reports suggested up to eight children and one adult had been victims of the attack. That number could be subject to change as the situation evolves.

Police said two of the children suffered life-threatening injuries while the other two are slightly hurt. They added that the adult also suffered life-threatening wounds.