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Several people including children injured in knife attack in French Alps Four children and an adult injured in knife attack in French Alps
(32 minutes later)
France’s interior minister says attack took place in a square in the town of AnnecyFrance’s interior minister says attack took place in a square in the town of Annecy
Several people including children have been injured in a knife attack in a town in the French Alps, according to France’s interior minister. Four children and an adult have been injured in a knife attack in the picturesque town of Annecy in the French Alps.
Gérald Darmanin said the attack took place in a square in the town of Annecy. In a short tweet, he said police had detained the attacker. At least three of the victims are in a critical condition in hospital.
At about 9.45am, a man armed with a knife entered a children’s playground near the town’s famous lake and attacked a group of children aged about three years old as they played, a security source and a local official told AFP.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, tweeted it was an act of “absolute cowardice” and the nation was in shock.
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.
One witness, named as Nelly, told France Info radio: “People were running, crying, panicking … it was horrible.”
Virgine Duby-Muller, the right’s MP for Haute-Savoie, told BFMTV: “I’m horrified . .. attacking children is abominable. It’s unthinkable what happened here this morning in a place which is so calm and peaceful, a place loved by residents and tourists alike. We’re shaken.”
National police, rather than anti-terrorist investigators, are heading the investigation. Police originally said six children had been injured.
The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, tweeted that the suspect “has been arrested thanks to the rapid reaction of security forces”.
“Several people including children have been injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy,” he tweeted.“Several people including children have been injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy,” he tweeted.
More details soon … France Info reported that the man was aged 32, was carrying Syrian identity papers and was an asylum seeker. BFMTV reported that the man had refugee status.
The prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, was travelling to the scene and MPs in the national parliament held a minute’s silence as news of the attack broke in the French media.