A Syrian refugee suspected of stabbing six people to death in the French Alpine town of Annecy this morning had no “terrorist motive”, a local prosecutor told reporters.
Two young children and one adult victim are reportedly in critical condition in hospital, reports RTE.
Line Bonnet-Mathis said that of the four children injured in the attack, one was just 22 months old, two were two years old and the oldest was three years old. One is from the UK and the other from Germany.
The suspect is a Syrian man in his 30s who was granted refugee status in Sweden in April, a police source told AFP. He was arrested at the crime scene.
In the video seen by AFP and confirmed by a source close to the case, the attacker twice says “in the name of Jesus Christ” in English, reports RTE.
The attacker, who was unknown to security services, was wearing a cross when he was arrested at around 9.45am (8.45am Irish time) shortly after the Lake Annecy attack.
BFM television showed footage of several police officers overpowering a person in the park.
“Children and one adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Twitter, calling the attack “an act of absolute cowardice”, reports RTE.
Witnesses said at least one of the children injured in the attack was in a stroller.
Former Liverpool footballer Anthony le Tallec was among the witnesses.
In a video he recorded, Le Tallec said he saw dozens of people fleeing the scene in panic.
“Run, run, there is a guy who is stabbing everybody all along the lake! he stabbed some children, run, run!” he heard one woman shout, reports RTE.
France has been shaken by a wave of violent incidents in recent months, including the fatal stabbing of a nurse in the northern city of Reims last month.
“Nothing more abominable than to attack children,” National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet said on Twitter, reports RTE.
“One of the … children injured was a British national. We have already deployed British consular officials to …support the family,” Mr Cleverly said at an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development press conference in Paris, reports RTE.
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