Four children and an adult have been stabbed in a town in the Alps in south-east France, according to AFP. The adult and two of the children are in critical condition.
The attacker, a Syrian asylum seeker, was apprehended shortly after the knife attack which happened at around 9:45 AM in the town of Annecy.
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the attack took place in a square in the town of Annecy. "Several people including children have been injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy," he tweeted.
A local lawmaker, Antoine Armand, tweeted that children were attacked on a playground, calling the attack 'abominable'.
Attaque abominable au couteau sur des enfants dans une aire de jeu à Annecy. Nous n’en savons encore que très peu mais tout mon soutien aux victimes, aux proches, aux forces de l’ordre et secours. Avec vous en pensée.
— Antoine Armand (@antoine_armand) June 8, 2023In Paris, lawmakers interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims, BFMTV reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne are reportedly on their way to the site.
Macron called the attack "an act of absolute cowardice" in a tweet condemning it.
Attaque d’une lâcheté absolue ce matin dans un parc à Annecy. Des enfants et un adulte sont entre la vie et la mort. La Nation est sous le choc. Nos pensées les accompagnent ainsi que leurs familles et les secours mobilisés.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 8, 2023France has been the target of a series of traumatic Islamist attacks over the last decade, including on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in 2015, the national stadium and Bataclan concert hall in Paris in the same year, and the city of Nice in 2016.
Most recently, the beheading of a teacher in broad daylight in 2020 near his school in a Paris suburb by a Chechen refugee led to an outpouring of grief and a national debate about the influence of radical Islam in deprived areas of the country.
Annecy is a quiet Alpine town of 135,000 people that lies 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the Swiss city of Geneva.
(With inputs from AFP)
