Children injured in knife attack in French Alps stable after surgery

Paris, June 9 (EFE).- All four children who were badly injured in a knife attack in southern France are now stable after being operated on, France’s prime minister Élisabeth Borne told reporters on Friday.

Born told reporters that the children had “all been operated on and are under continuous medical observation.”

“Today their condition is stable,” she added.

Earlier on Friday, government spokesman Olivier Véran had told France Info radio that two of the children, aged between 22 months and three years old, were in critical condition.

In addition to the four children, two adults were also injured in Thursday’s knife attack in a playground in the lake town of Annecy, in southeastern France.

President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte on Friday morning traveled to the city of Grenoble, where some of the victims are being cared for, to meet the victims’ families and members of the emergency and police services who came to their aid.

The alleged perpetrator of the stabbing, Abdelmash H, was apprehended by the police shortly after the incident and is in custody.

Annecy’s prosecutor said on Friday that “the defendant’s custody is extended,” before adding that further statements would not be made for the rest of the day.

According to several witness reports, the alleged perpetrator began yelling in English and repeatedly stabbed young children, one of whom was in a stroller in the playground.

In footage shared on social media, adults in the park can be seen trying to stop the attacker, who was dressed in black, wearing sunglasses and had a scarf tied around his head as he fled with the knife still in his right hand.

The 31-year-old, who is a Syrian national, did not have a terrorist motive, according to the local prosecutor.

The alleged attacker has had refugee status since 2013 in Sweden, where he married a Swedish citizen with whom he shares a three-year-old son, according to the reports.

The young man had been living in France since late 2022 and has no police records.

He had applied for asylum in France but was turned down just three days before he unleashed the playground attack, interior minister Gérald Darmanin said.

The incident has sparked an outcry among far-right groups who have criticized France’s migration policies.

In an interview on Europe 1 radio, former presidential candidate and member of National Rally, Marine Le Pen denounced the many “failures” that led to the tragedy including the fact the alleged attacker had not been deported back to Sweden after being denied asylum in France.

In response to Le Pen, Véran explained that under French law, Abdelmash H had a month to appeal the decision to turn down his asylum request.EFE

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