Four young children were stabbed in a park near Lake Annecy, France‘s south-east.
Police arrested the attacker, according to Gérald Darmanin. Children, around three years old, were reported critically ill. Antoine Armand called the attack “abominable” and Élisabeth Borne is heading to the scene.
Mr. Armand expressed sympathy for the victims and their loved ones, and stated that authorities were investigating but had limited information.
Initially, officials reported six injured children, but later confirmed four children and two others were victims of the attack.
Reports from Le Parisien, BFM TV, and AFP suggest that the suspect is a Syrian refugee. He attacked children and an elderly man in a park.
Police shot the perpetrator in the legs. France’s National Assembly observed a minute of silence and roads are blocked near the attack site.
Macron tweeted that the nation was in shock over the act of cowardice.
Former Liverpool football player Anthony le Tallec was on a run in the town at the time of the attack in Annecy park.
He said he heard people yelling “Run! Run!” and watched as the police chased the alleged attacker down after attacking an elderly man.
He said he then continued his run along the lake, where he saw the injured children on the ground.
“It’s crazy to have this in Annecy”, he said.
He also claimed police were delayed in their response to shoot the man with the knife.
Another woman, Eleanor Vincent, told the BBC she “knew something horrible had happened” as she approached the lake.
“People were going about their business or on their holiday, as I was, and it’s just shocking. I have no other way of describing it the incident that occurred at Lake Annecy .”
A prosecutor confirmed that the suspect who was arrested had targeted a Dutch child and two French children in the past hour. The children are aged 22 months to 3 years.
The suspect has no criminal or psychiatric record and there is no evidence of a terrorist motive, according to French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.