A British child was among a number of victims attacked by a knifeman in a playground in the French Alps.
An adult and four children, all under the age of five, were critically injured when a 31-year-old Syrian went on the rampage in the town of Annecy on Thursday morning.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said one of the injured children was British.
French police said the suspect was an illegal immigrant from Syria, who had refugee status in Sweden.
Line Bonnet-Mathis, a local prosecutor, said the man repeatedly stabbed a child in a pushchair as her mother screamed for help.
The injured children, who are aged between 22 months and three years, are in a “very severe state,” said Bonnet-Mathis.
She said the knifeman’s motives remain unclear but do not appear to be related to terrorism.
Video of Attack on Social Media
Details are still coming in about the attack but a video circulating on social media appeared to show children being attacked in a playground.The footage showed a man in dark glasses, with a blue keffiyeh covering his head, brandishing a weapon as people screamed and ran away.
In the video, the man shouted, “In name of Jesus Christ” as he waved his knife in the air while people around could be heard yelling: “Police! Police!”
One man, carrying two rucksacks, tried to intervene and stop the attack.
It is understood the man, who has not been named, was eventually shot in the legs by a French police officer.
Cleverly, speaking at an OECD ministerial council press conference in France, said, “Our thoughts are with the victims and the families and we stand ready to support the French authorities in whichever way we can.”
He said, “One of the people, one of the children injured, was a British national.”
‘Solidarity With France’
The foreign secretary said, “Of course, we stand in strong solidarity with the people of France at this terrible time.”France’s President Emmanuel Macron said the attack was one of “absolute cowardice.”
He wrote on Twitter, “The nation is in shock.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, writing on Twitter said it was a “truly cowardly act” and added, “The UK and France have always stood together against acts of violence, and we do so again today.”
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the attacker was a Syrian national who was granted refugee status in Sweden 10 years ago and had no criminal or psychiatric record.
She also said the man had children of the same age as his victims.
Borne said, “We are absolutely shaken by all this and we are standing firm by the people of Annecy.”
Local politician Antoine Armand told BFMTV the victims included “very young” children who were “savagely attacked.”
Politicians interrupted a debate in the National Assembly to hold a moment of silence for the victims.
Assembly President Yael Braun-Pivet said, “There are some very young children who are in critical condition and I invite you to respect a minute of silence for them, for their families, and so that, we hope, the consequences of this very grave attack do not lead to the nation grieving.”
France has in the past suffered terrorist attacks by Islamists, often associated with ISIS, including the November 2015 suicide bombings in Paris which killed 130 people.
In January 2015, jihadist terrorists attacked the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and murdered 12 people.
A lone wolf attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, drove a truck into a crowd of people on the promenade in Nice, southern France on July 14—Bastille Day–2016, killing 86 people.
