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French town pays tribute to those who chased off knife attacker

Hundreds of residents of the French town of Annecy gathered Sunday to honour the people who rushed to stop a man accused of stabbing six people, including four toddlers, at a playground last week.

French town pays tribute to those who chased off knife attacker
A woman lays flowers for the victims. Photo: OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP.

Hundreds of residents of the French town of Annecy gathered Sunday to honour the people who rushed to stop a man accused of stabbing six people, including four toddlers, at a playground last week.

Under the radiant sun, in the same park where the tragedy unfolded Thursday, people laid flowers, while on a nearby bench someone had written the names of the child victims inside a heart.

“It’s a strong sign of unity and solidarity that we’re all here together,” said the city’s mayor Francois Astorg.

“We are together. We will face this together,” he added, while also paying tribute to those who responded to the attack “with courage and professionalism.” 

They include two municipal agents who tried to stop the attacker with a shovel, a young man renting out pedal boats and a maths teacher who both tried to step in, and a tourist who chased the attacker. A childminder also rushed in to rescue two wounded children.

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron met the civilians being hailed as heroes for chasing the alleged attacker from the playground where the stabbings took place.

On Saturday, public prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis paid tribute to those who, “by their action, were able to preserve human lives”. She also acknowledged the work of the emergency services.

She also announced that the Syrian refugee detained over the stabbings, named as Abdalmasih H, had been charged with “attempted murder”.

The attack left the normally peaceful lakeside town in shock. Hundreds of people have laid flowers, soft toys and heart-shaped balloons at the site of the attack.

Abdalmasih H. “did not wish to speak” during his 48 hours in police custody nor before the magistrates leading the investigation, Bonnet-Mathis told reporters on Saturday.

After two psychiatric evaluations, he was deemed “compatible with police custody”, and doctors had determined he did not suffer from delusions.

However, she added, it was too early to diagnose or rule out other psychological pathologies.

He has been placed in solitary confinement at the Aiton penitentiary, a source close to the case told AFP.

Victims out of danger

Bonnet-Mathis also said that the victims of the attack were no longer in a life-threatening condition.

The children, aged between 22 months and three years, were initially hospitalised in a serious condition, while one adult was also seriously wounded and another lightly hurt.

Recently divorced from a Swedish national and in his early 30s, the suspect had previously lived for 10 years in Sweden where he was granted refugee status in April, security sources and his ex-wife told AFP.

He left the country because he had been unable to get Swedish nationality, she added.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told broadcaster TF1 that “for reasons not well explained he had also sought asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France”.

It emerged that his application in France was rejected last Sunday as he already had refugee status in Sweden.

France has been the target of a series of Islamist attacks over the last decade.

According to video taken by a bystander however, the alleged attacker could be heard shouting “in the name of Jesus Christ” during the attack.

While prosecutors say they have not identified a terror motive in the attack, the incident has intensified tensions in France over immigration, with right-wing politicians seizing on the suspect’s foreign origins.

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CRIME

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a youth in the Paris region with planning a "terrorist" attack on Jewish targets, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

While no details on the pair have been released, French anti-terrorist investigators have expressed increased concern over the young age of some suspects detained in recent months for planning militant attacks.

The 19-year-old has been charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” said the judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

READ ALSO: Anti-Semitism fears stalk Jewish voters’ choice in France

The youth aged under 18 was detained on June 13, the source said.

The pair made contact on social media and were planning a “a violent action notably aiming at Jewish targets,” said the source without giving details on the plot.

Anti-terrorism investigators say a growing number of youths have been held in recent months for preparing attacks.

READ ALSO: French election breakdown: TV debates, polling latest and anti-Semitism

“This is a necessarily worrying phenomenon,” senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen said at an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.

French politicians have also condemned a growing number of attacks on the country’s Jewish community, the biggest outside Israel and the United States.

Outrage has been expressed over the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a park in the Paris suburbs last Saturday. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with rape and making anti-Semitic insults.

Several protest rallies have been held in Paris and other French cities over the case which comes as France prepares for a national election in which the far-right National Rally party is tipped to make major gains. 

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