Four young children and two adults were injured in a horrific knife attack in a scenic lakeside park in southeastern France on Thursday, according to reports.
The stabbing spree in the alpine town of Annecy left the four children—aged between 22 months and 3—with life-threatening injuries, a French prosecutor investigating the incident said. Two adults were also wounded.
Earlier reports Thursday suggested that as many as eight children may have been hurt. Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, confirmed the attack on Twitter and said the knifeman “was arrested thanks for the very rapid intervention of the police.”
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The prosecutor said the suspect is a 31-year-old Syrian man, and that his motives for the attack are not currently known. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also said that the man has refugee status in Sweden. He was arrested in the town around 20 miles south of the Swiss city of Geneva at around 9:45 a.m. local time.
Disturbing videos shared online show the man running around a playground stabbing young children—including at least one in a stroller—as adults scream for help and attempt to stop him. Armed officers reportedly shot the suspect in the legs before he was detained.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly confirmed that one of the injured children is a U.K. national. “And of course we stand in strong solidarity with the people of France at this terrible time,” Cleverly said.
In a statement on Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron described the incident as an “attack of absolute cowardice.” “The nation is in shock,” he added, saying the country’s thoughts were with the victims, their families, and the emergency services.
“I was running by the lake when I saw, suddenly, dozens of people coming quickly towards me, in the opposite direction,” Anthony Le Tallec, a soccer star who used to play for Liverpool, said in a video on Instagram on Thursday, Le Parisien reports. “I wondered what was going on. A mom yelled at me: Run, run, there’s someone stabbing everyone, all along the lake! He stabbed children, run, run!” He added that he then witnessed the suspect stabbing a man before being shot by police.
Lawmakers in the French National Assembly stood for a minute’s silence on Thursday. “There are very young children in a critical state and I ask you to observe a minute of silence for them, for their families,” Yaël Braun-Pivet, the assembly’s president, said. “We hope that the consequences of this extremely serious attack are not consequences that will send the country into mourning.”
