Jean-Luc Boujon (in Annecy) 14h10, 09 June 2023

Six people, including four children, were injured Thursday by a man in a knife attack in Annecy. Among them, Alcan, 78, wounded in the arm. Europe 1 met him this Friday morning, at the Pâquier, sitting on the same bench on which he was attacked the day before.

Twenty-four hours after the knife attack in Annecy, emotion is still intense in the city. Apart from the four children, the assailant also attacked two adults. Manuel, a Portuguese septuagenarian who was stabbed twice in the neck and accidentally fired by a police officer, and Alcan, 78, lightly wounded, who was also stabbed. Europe 1 met him the day after the tragedy.

"He gave me a brutal blow in the stomach"

Incredibly, when Europe 1 met him, Alcan, 78, was sitting on the same bench facing the lake as on Thursday, when he was attacked by this Syrian refugee, around 9:40 am. The difference is that this Friday morning, when he speaks to us, Alcan has a bandage around his left arm, a stigma of the assault he suffered. It happened right after the attack on the children in the playground. Alcan, who is resting in the sun after his daily bike ride, hears screams. He turns around and sees a man running, approaching him and trying to stab him.

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"He came behind me. Quickly, he gave a brutal blow with his knife in my stomach and I made a reflex movement to avoid him. But it still touched me, but on three centimeters, that's all, "he explains. "I am slightly injured, probably when backing up, he touched me with the tip of the knife. I was sitting all the time. He was running and being followed by two people. Courageous young people. He came up behind me and I didn't see him. He probably wanted to make another victim, he was panicked. He tried to stab me," Alcan recalled. "He had brute force."

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So, what saved Alcan was this reflex that pushed him to protect himself from the stab with his left arm. When he attacked him, the man didn't say anything, Alcan just noticed his blank look and he was struck by his determination. Today, this 78-year-old grandpa prefers not to think that he is a miracle worker, but he is aware that things could have been much more dramatic for him.