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Published: 17:55, June 08, 2023 | Updated: 21:43, June 08, 2023
Nursery children injured in knife attack in southeast France
By Xinhua & Agencies
Published:17:55, June 08, 2023 Updated:21:43, June 08, 2023 By Xinhua & Agencies

A French police officer (left) and French elite mountain infantry force 'Chasseurs Alpins' stand guard near the lake in Annecy, central-eastern France on June 8, 2023, following a mass stabbing in the French Alpine town. (PHOTO / AFP)

PARIS - A man on Thursday morning stabbed people with a knife in a park in the city of Annecy, southeast France, injuring several people, including nursery children, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin confirmed.

"The man suspected of carrying out the attack was arrested by the police," he added.

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

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.

The Prefecture of Haute-Savoie said in a press release that the attack injured a total of six people, including two adults and four nursery children.

A police source told French news channel BFMTV that the victims were all severely injured, while two children and one adult are in life-threatening condition.

Witnesses said at least one of the children wounded in the attack was in a stroller. The incident took place at around 0745 GMT in the playground of a lakeside park in Annecy, a town in the French Alps.

"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.

A screen grab taken from a video obtained by AFPTV on June 8, 2023 shows a man armed with a knife running away after he attacked a group of pre-school children playing by a lake in the French Alps city of Annecy, wounding four as well as an adult and sending shockwaves through the country. (AFPTV / AFP)

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

The TV channel showed footage of several policemen overpowering an individual in a park.

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French President Emmanuel Macron called the act an "attack of absolute cowardice."

"Children and one adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock," he added on his social media.




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