• Four children and two adults injured after being stabbed in an attack in the French city of Annecy
  • Profile The hero of Annecy's backpack: "I have been afraid for my life but above all for that of others"

Abdelmasih H. He was a man of manners. He arrived every day at the same time at his corner of the portal, at number two rue Royale. At seven, when the shops closed, he would settle in, extend his sleeping bag and put on his helmets. "He was calm, calm, he had his rituals, but he didn't look suspicious." Bertrand is one of the few merchants who does not hesitate to talk about the tenant of the portal opposite: the man who broke into a playground in the town of Annecy, at the foot of the French Alps, on Thursday and wounded with a knife four children between two and three years old and two adults.

The 31-year-old man of Syrian origin has been in police custody since Thursday. Yesterday he could not be questioned due to his condition, as he was "very agitated, anxious and depressed", a source close to the investigation told AFP. According to the psychiatric examination carried out, in principle he does not need to be transferred to a psychiatric or medical facility, and may be in police custody. He also has no psychiatric history.

There are a thousand questions: about his situation, what he was doing in Annecy and the main one of all: what led him to attack children in such a savage and cruel way in a playground. This man had lived for several years in Sweden, where he married a woman of Syrian origin, like him, but who had obtained Swedish nationality. They had one daughter. He is three years old, the age of the children he attacked.

They had separated eight months ago, this woman has revealed to some French media, and he had moved to Annecy. "He had been here for months, at least since the beginning of the year," says Bertrand, who owns a textile shop across the street from the gate where he spent his nights. "We were asking ourselves questions... for example, he was always very clean and we wondered why he was not in a shelter," says this man.

Refugee status

The attacker had obtained refugee status in Sweden, but, despite this, he had also requested asylum in other countries, one of them France, where he traveled "on a regular basis". They denied it because they had already processed it with that country. They were notified four days before the attack. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin stressed on the day of the attack "this coincidence."

It is the first question: why did he request asylum in one country when he was already legally in another of the Schengen area, which allowed him to move. According to the newspaper Le Monde, although he was in a regular situation, Sweden had denied him nationality, justifying that the plaintiff "had assured that he worked in the Syrian Navy between 2011 and 2012". He had declared himself a "Syrian Christian", and at the time of the attack was carrying a cross and some images of Jesus Christ, but the motive for his attack is still unknown.

Some neighbors of Annecy do reveal that he had a strange behavior: He came to the park and sat on the benches, talked to himself. "The boys who work on the lake with the boats say he behaved very strangely," explains one of the neighbors, who has gone to the playground to lay flowers for the injured children.

The detainee will be presented this Saturday before a judge and the prosecutor will appear to give more details.

  • Sweden
  • Syria
  • France

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