“We can have great hopes,” says Macron after visiting victims of the attack in Annecy

As many remain reeling from the knife attack on children between the ages of 22 months and three years old, French President Emmanuel Macron has delivered a piece of reassurance.

From Annecy, in the south of the country, where he went on June 9 with his wife Brigitte Macron to visit the victims, the president assured that the recovery of minors “is going in the right direction.”

“We can have the greatest hopes for the children and adults who have been affected and, normally, things will continue to improve (…) Assaulting children is the most barbaric act there is,” Macron added.

His statements coincide with those of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, who stressed that two of the little ones are in critical condition, but their situation is stable, after undergoing emergency surgery. One of the adults attacked also remains in serious condition.

A day earlier, four minors and two retired people in their 70s were injured when a man of Syrian origin attacked them with a knife in a park. on the shores of Lake Annecya normally pleasant place that gathers local visitors and tourists.

A video, taken by a passerby and verified by Reuters, shows the attacker jumping over a low wall into a playground and repeatedly attacking a child in a stroller and pushing a woman who tried to avoid him.

Among the small injured are a British citizen and a Dutch citizen.

Macron expressed his gratitude to the authorities and the “hero of the backpack”

In Annecy, the head of state also met with public security authorities and emergency personnel who responded to the attack.

Calling what happened an “act of absolute cowardice”, Macron waved and shook hands with the officials, expressing pride in their work.

“As president, I am very proud of you, very proud of what your fellow citizens who happened to be there have done (…) They did their duty, but as they did their duty, they achieved even more. I am extremely proud,” he remarked the head of state.

The French territory has seen an outpouring of praise on social media for rescue workers and a man hailed as a “hero” for going after the attacker.

Many highlight the courage of a young man who came face to face with the attacker and used his backpack as a shield while trying to stop the attack. Local media have dubbed the 24-year-old “the backpack hero” and he has been identified as Henri, who also met with the president.

“All I know is that I was not there by chance (…) It was unthinkable to do nothing. I followed my instinct and did what I could to protect the weak,” said the young administration and philosophy student in an interview with the chain of television ‘CNews’.

His Facebook and Instagram accounts were flooded with messages thanking him for his actions.

“God bless you, you did what you could at the time, you didn’t give up, you didn’t run. You are an angel,” wrote one of the users.

What is known from the investigation

The attacker was identified as Abdalmasih H, around 31 years of age and of Syrian origin, who remains in custody and underwent a psychiatric examination.

At the moment, the authorities are investigating him for attempted murder and deny that it was a terrorist act. “There is no obvious terrorist motive,” said Annecy prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis.

For his part, the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, assured that the suspect had no police record in France, was homeless and had been questioned by the Police on Sunday June 4 while washing in Lake Annecy.

Recently divorced from a citizen of Sweden, a country where he lived for 10 years, the suspect had received refugee status there, confirmed security sources and his ex-wife.

But when he could not obtain Swedish nationality, he decided to move out of the country.

“He called me about four months ago. He was living in a church,” his ex-wife said.

Darmanin noted that for reasons not yet clarified, the individual “also requested asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France.”

His request on French territory had been rejected just four days before the attack, because he had already been granted that status in another European Union nation.

Darmanin described the rejection of that request and the stabbings as a “troubling coincidence.”

Witnesses described the attacker as running through the park on the banks of Lake Annecy wearing a bandana and sunglasses and apparently attacking people at random. Armed police officers arrested him at the scene.

Attack reignites right-wing debate on migration

France has suffered a series of attacks in the past decade, most of them by Islamic extremists.

More recently, in 2020, shock gripped the country over the beheading of a teacher in broad daylight, near his school in a Paris suburb, by a radicalized Chechen refugee.

That incident sparked a wave of shock and a national debate about the influence of radical Islam in deprived areas.

Now the assault in the French Alps has reignited debate over France’s immigration and asylum policy, especially by right-wing political groups.

“It seems that the culprit has the same profile that is often seen in these attacks,” the head of the right-wing Republican party, Éric Ciotti, remarked in parliament.

Meanwhile, former presidential candidate and far-right figure Marine Le Pen said France should “regain sovereignty” on immigration.

But government spokesman Olivier Véran stressed that such discussions are premature “when we are at the moment of shock, when the children are on the operating table.”

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne called on “everyone to show dignity in these circumstances”.

With AFP and Reuters