Four young children who were stabbed by a Syrian migrant in the French town of Annecy yesterday are in a stable condition according to officials.
Local prosecutor, Line Bonnet-Mathis, says the children range in age from 22 months to 3 years, with President Emmaneul Macron calling the attack ‘cowardly’.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that all the children, who are being cared for at a hospital in Grenoble, have been operated on adding, ““Their condition is stable,”
It has been confirmed that the suspect is a 31 year old Syrian national who had been granted asylum status in Sweden.
The man, who is identified as Abdalmasih H., has a Swedish wife and 3 year old daughter who he left pursuing asylum status in France.
French news outlet BFM reported that a woman identified as the man’s wife said he did not call her “for months” and that the relationship broke down because the man did not wish to live in Sweden any longer, “we lived in Sweden and he did not want to live in Sweden anymore,” she said.
It is believed he was residing in Sweden since 2013 but did not attain citizenship.
It was reported that the suspect is to undergo a psychiatric evaluation this morning and that a terrorist motivation is not suspected with prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis saying she could “not rule out a senseless act at this stage,”
Abdalmasih reportedly filed an asylum application in France last November declaring himself a ‘Syrian Christian’ but received news that his claim had been refused on the 4th of June last according to Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
It has been alleged that during the knife attack Abdalmasih shouted ‘In the name of Jesus’.