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 kids, 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 find out 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 law enforcement officials 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. On the time of his arrest, he was sporting 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 throughout the assault, the prosecutor added.
The assailant has refused to reply investigators’ questions, Ms. Bonnet-Mathis mentioned at a information convention on Saturday.
“Because it stands, it’s untimely to evaluate the motivation behind this act,” she mentioned.
Two specialist magistrates, who underneath French regulation are tasked with investigating probably the most critical and sophisticated 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 better. 4 of the them had been kids aged 3 or youthful, together with a French boy and woman who had been in Annecy with their grandmother, a British woman who was on trip along with her mother and father, and a Dutch woman who was rapidly 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 person was homeless and witnesses mentioned they’d 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 components” and was match for questioning, Ms. Bonnet-Mathis mentioned. However the psychiatrist who examined him additionally cautioned that it was “untimely” 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, usually carried out by lone assailants.