France: Man Stabs Pre-School Kids, Baby Inside Park; Attack Caught On Video

PARIS: In an incident that sent shockwaves around the country, a knife-wielding man in the French Alps on Thursday launched an attack on a group of pre-school kids playing on the side of a lake, stabbing and wounding four, including an adult.

A video taken of the knife attack showed the assailant running into the park and targetting a child in a pram. Although a woman tries to block him, he attacks from the side and stabs the child a number of times.

The suspect is reported to be a Syrian in his early 30s who had been granted status of a refugee in Sweden in April, according to AFP.

People witnessing the attack near the banks of Lake Annecy said the suspected knifeman was frenziedly running around, attacking people in a random manner, before the police shot him down.

Among the victims, two children aged around three and an adult were reported to be in a critical condition and battling for their lives in the hospital.

A scenic town in the French Alps, Annecy is close to the Switzerland border and is popular with tourists. The town also hosts one of the top animation festivals in the world and it is slated to start Sunday.

President of France Emmanuel Macron termed the incident to be an "attack of absolute cowardice".

Taking to Twitter, Macron wrote, "The nation is shocked. Our thoughts are with (the victims) as well as their families and the emergency services.”

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's office stated that she was headed to the scene of the crime, even as MPs in the French parliament observed a minute's silence.

In the middle of a verbose debate about pension reforms, French parliament Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet told MPs, "We hope that the consequences of this extremely serious attack... will not send the country into mourning.”

Investigations are on to ascertain the attacker’s motive and identity and further details are expected at a press conference to be held by the local prosecutor.

Earlier In 2012, in the southern city of Toulouse, a Franco-Algerian extremist called Mohamed Merah shot and killed seven people during a shooting spree.

Even more recently in 2020, the beheading of a teacher near his school in a Paris suburb in broad daylight by a radical Islamic Chechen refugee led to a country-wide shock and grief.

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