A Syrian who had lived in Sweden with refugee status for around ten years was arrested near France’s Lake Annecy by police on Thursday after going on a stabbing rampage at a local playground where he attacked and seriously injured six people, including four young children.
The Syrian, whom French broadcaster BFMTV has identified as Abdalmasih H., allegedly targeted children in strollers at a local playground, seriously injuring four children aged between 22 and 36 months, all of whom were placed in emergency care. Two adults, including a 78-year-old man were also injured in the attack.
According to a report from Sky News, one of the children injured is a British citizen while another is of German nationality, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Two of the children stabbed are also believed to be cousins.
The motivation for the knife attack, which has not been labelled a terrorist attack by French authorities so far, remains unclear, but some witnesses claim that Abdalmasih H. was shouting “In the name of Jesus Christ” as he allegedly stabbed the victims and he was said to be carrying a cross and a Christian prayer book at the time of his arrest.
Abdalmasih H. is believed to have arrived in Sweden in 2013 and claimed to be an Eastern Christian and applied for refugee status, which was later granted. He then moved to France, applying for asylum in November of last year but was denied just four days before the attack because he had already been approved for refugee status in Sweden, as well as Italy and Switzerland.
The ex-wife of Abdalmasih H. told AFP that her former husband was born in Al-Hassake and that she was living with him in the Swedish city of Trollhättan until just several months ago, but they separated when he was denied Swedish citizenship. The couple also had a daughter together who was born in Sweden.
The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported that the 31-year-old led an “orderly life” in Sweden and had received permanent residency status. However, he had applied for Swedish citizenship three times and had been rejected twice with his third application yet to receive a response.
The only known interaction Abdalmasih H. had with the Swedish judicial system related to a welfare violation in which he was collecting grants to study alongside unemployment benefits.
So far, there has also been no indication that Abdalmasih H. suffered from any particular mental illness or psychological problems, although public prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis stated that he was homeless.
Footage of the attack also emerged online showing a man with a cloth on his head jogging around a playground armed with a knife, stabbing young children, while other bystanders attempt to hold him at bay. Footage of his arrest was also broadcast and shared on social media.
Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications Jean-Noël Barrot later stated that he was working with Twitter to remove footage of the attack and stated that dissemination of the footage was punishable under French law.
French President Emmanuel Macron commented on the attack on Twitter saying,
[An] attack of absolute cowardice this morning in a park in Annecy. Children and an adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with them, their families and the relief efforts mobilised.
Prime Minister Élizabeth Borne and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin arrived at the scene shortly after the arrest and held a press conference, with Prime Minister Borne labelling the attack a “heinous and unspeakable act.”
Rassemblement National (RN) MP and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen expressed sympathy with the victims of the attack stating, “It is with fear and horror that we learn of the aggression of young children in Annecy by an individual armed with a knife. My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.”
The conservative leader of Reconquête, Eric Zemmour, also a former presidential candidate, was much more direct in his comments, highlighting the Syrian’s refugee status saying, “Before, asylum seekers fled to avoid death. Now asylum seekers are leaving their country to better kill our children.”
Fatal stabbings by asylum seekers have not been uncommon in Sweden, where Abdalmasih H. lived for ten years.
In 2015, an Eritrean asylum seeker named Abraham Ukbagabir murdered two people, a mother and her son, at an Ikea in Västerås after picking up the knife from the kitchen supplies section of the shop. He later admitted that the attack had been motivated by the fact that his asylum application had been rejected.
While it remains unknown if the stabbing attacks in Annecy were motivated by the fact that Abdalmasih H. had received a rejection on his French asylum claim, murders motivated by asylum rejections have been seen in recent years in France.
In one case, a 46-year-old official at an asylum reception facility in the city of Pau was murdered in 2021 by a 38-year-old asylum seeker from Sudan, who stabbed the official three times, including once in the throat. It was reported that the stabbing came just after the Sudanese asylum seeker learned his application had been rejected.
