A homeless Syrian man in his 30s was charged with tried homicide and detained in France on Saturday in reference to a violent stabbing assault this previous week that injured two adults and 4 younger youngsters, a prosecutor mentioned.
There was no indication that the assault was an act of terrorism, mentioned Line Bonnet-Mathis, the general public prosecutor in Annecy, the southeastern French metropolis the place the assault unfolded on Thursday. The attacker, now in custody, has additionally been charged with resisting arrest with a weapon.
Investigators have but to decide the motive of the assailant, who they mentioned went on a violent rampage, lunging at younger households at a playground in one in all Annecy’s hottest lakeside parks, and stabbing his victims with a switchblade. Bystanders, together with a so-called backpack hero, chased the person earlier than cops arrested him.
The authorities haven’t publicly named the person however mentioned he had obtained asylum in Sweden, lived there for a decade and nonetheless has a 3-year-old little one there. At the time of his arrest, he was carrying a cross necklace and carrying different Christian symbols in addition to 480 euros ($516), Ms. Bonnet-Mathis mentioned. Witnesses heard him point out his ex-wife, his daughter and Jesus Christ in the course of the assault, the prosecutor added.
The assailant has refused to reply investigators’ questions, Ms. Bonnet-Mathis mentioned at a information convention on Saturday.
“As it stands, it is premature to assess the motivation behind this act,” she mentioned.
Two specialist magistrates, who underneath French regulation are tasked with investigating probably the most severe and complex crimes, have opened a proper investigation, Ms. Bonnet-Mathis mentioned.
She mentioned that the six victims had been not in a essential situation and had been anticipated to get well. Four of the them had been youngsters aged 3 or youthful, together with a French boy and lady who had been in Annecy with their grandmother, a British lady who was on trip along with her mother and father, and a Dutch lady who was shortly transferred to Geneva for surgical procedure, she mentioned.
Ms. Bonnet-Mathis mentioned that the person, a Syrian refugee born in 1991, was not underneath the affect of medicine or alcohol on the time of the assault. The man was homeless and witnesses mentioned that they had seen him sleep within the frequent space of a downtown residential constructing. After leaving Syria, he arrived in Sweden in 2013 and obtained asylum there, however left in 2022, for causes that stay unclear. He went by means of Italy and Switzerland earlier than arriving in France, the place his software for asylum was rejected.
A psychiatric analysis discovered that he was not affected by any “clear delusional elements” and was match for questioning, Ms. Bonnet-Mathis mentioned. But the psychiatrist who examined him additionally cautioned that it was “premature” to say whether or not he had an underlying psychiatric sickness, she added.
Such assaults have receded from the headlines in France lately, however the nation remains to be scarred and on excessive alert due to earlier incidents. France was struck by large-scale Islamist terrorist assaults in 2015 and in 2016, adopted by a string of smaller however nonetheless lethal shootings and stabbings in subsequent years, typically carried out by lone assailants.
