A man has been put under investigation for attempted murder – the equivalent of being charged – in connection with the stabbing of four children in a park in Annecy, France.
A British girl who was one of the children stabbed in the attack will be able to leave hospital soon, prosecutors said.
Abdalmasih Hanoun, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee appeared before two judges on Saturday after allegedly going on the rampage with a knife on Thursday. The public prosecutor, Line-Bonnet Mathis, said he had refused to speak or answer questions from the police or judges and would be held in custody.
Mathis told a press conference the four children, aged between 22 months and three years, received a total of 11 knife wounds but confirmed their lives were no longer in danger. The British girl, aged three, who was on holiday in Annecy with her parents, is due to leave hospital in the next few days, the public prosecutor added.
One of the injured adults has already returned home. The second adult, who was stabbed and also received a gunshot wound when police arrived to tackle the suspect, has been operated on and is out of danger, the prosecutor added.
The suspect was reportedly not known to any intelligence services and was described as homeless and isolated. He has refugee status in Sweden, where his former wife and three-year-old child live.
Police described him as “agitated” and said he had given no explanation for his alleged actions. French television said police sources described him as “not in a normal state” but added that a psychiatrist had judged him well enough to be held in custody.
Mathis said the attack was still not considered terrorist-related but that police were keeping an open mind and remained in contact with the terror unit.
BFMTV reported Hanoun had refused to leave his cell on Saturday morning. It showed footage of police officers carrying him in a chair to the vehicle to transport him to court.
At a press conference, Mathis detailed the injuries to the children: a French boy, aged two, received two stab wounds to the thorax and abdomen; a French girl, aged nearly three, was stabbed three times in the thorax; a British girl, aged three, was stabbed once. The fourth child, a girl aged two from the Netherlands, was stabbed three times and is being treated in hospital in Geneva.
One man who was “injured slightly” had already left hospital and the second, who was being attacked as police arrived at the scene, suffered stab wounds and was injured by a police bullet aimed at the suspect. He has been operated on and his life is out of danger, Mathis added.
She said tests for alcohol and drugs had come back negative. Hanoun was found with a jack-knife and a rucksack, and was carrying “two Christian images” and a Swedish driving licence and wearing a cross.
The police director, Damien Delaby, said a total of 50 officers had been dispatched to the scene on Thursday.
The suspect had requested asylum in France shortly after arriving in October and had been living in the parc du Pâquier, the site of the attack, for at least two months, according to locals who recognised him.
The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told French television: “For reasons that haven’t been explained, he made asylum requests in Switzerland, Italy and France.”
As Hanoun had already been granted refugee status in Sweden, he was notified his request had been refused by the French authorities on 4 June, four days before the knife attack.
Darmanin described it as a “troubling coincidence”.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte, visited those injured in the attack on Friday and said their condition was “positive”.
Macron also met the French hero who chased the attacker out of the play area in the Annecy park and promised to grant him his one wish. After the president thanked Henri d’Anselme, 24, for his prompt action, which saved further bloodshed, the man nicknamed the “backpack hero” made a request.
“At the moment I am doing a tour of French cathedrals. I would be honoured to be present for the inauguration of Notre-Dame in Paris,” D’Anselme asked Macron.
“I’ll take care of it personally … request granted,” the president replied.
At a speech at the local prefecture, Macron told D’Anselme and others, including two park attendants who set off in pursuit of the attacker, they “showed courage and stepped in without question”.
“You have been remarkable and as president, I want to tell you that I am very proud of you … Very proud of what has been done by compatriots who were simply there,” Macron, who appeared moved, said. ”By each and every one of you doing your duty, you have done much more.”
A march in support of the victims of the attack has been organised in Annecy for Sunday morning.