Syrian refugee who stabbed British child and five others in Annecy knife attack was denied asylum in France
A Syrian refugee who stabbed six people, including four young children in Annecy, southeast France, was denied asylum in the country last month.
The suspect, who has been named as Abdalmasih H by French media, had his asylum request rejected because he has held refugee status in Sweden for the past 10 years.
French authorities rejected the request on 26 April but the suspect only learned of the decision on 4 June, French broadcaster BFMTV said.
The 31-year-old was arrested in connection with the attack at a lakeside park in which four children – two aged two, one aged three and a 22-month-old – suffered “life-threatening injuries”.
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What do we know about the Annecy knife attacker?
The Annecy attacker is a Syrian national, police say
Pic: AP
French soldiers secure the area
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly confirmed that one of the youngsters is British.
Two of the children were earlier reported as a brother and sister but BFMTV now report they are cousins.
The local prosecutor said another of the children is Dutch. However, Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said they were German.
Two adult men were also injured, one of whom was injured with the knife and by a shot fired by police as they were making the arrest.
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Knife attack ‘happened in front of my kids’
President Emmanuel Macron said those badly hurt in a park were “between life and death”.
Earlier, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the 31-year-old had entered France legally and was not known to security agencies.
The suspect also applied for asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France, which Mr Darmanin said he “didn’t need to do as he already had asylum in Sweden”.
He carried Swedish identity documents and a Swedish driving licence, a police spokesman said.
Prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said the suspect’s motives were unknown but there was “no apparent terrorist motive” at this stage in the investigation.
There is no intelligence on the suspect and no psychiatric report, and he has no fixed abode, Ms Bonnet-Mathis said.
Mr Darmanin said he had certain “Christian religious insignia” on him during the incident.
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Multiple children injured in knife attack
He is married to a Swedish woman and they have a three-year-old child who was born in Sweden, BFMTV reported.
The couple separated eight months ago and his wife has apparently not heard from him for four months.
He and his wife were studying together to be nurses, BFMTV said.
Video footage of the incident shows the man appears to shout “on name of Jesus Christ” as he waved his knife in the air, while two members of the public tried to apprehend him.
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Cleverly: UK stands in ‘strong solidarity with France’
A man who spoke to broadcaster BFMTV said he saw first aiders working on “little bodies, three or four years old, perhaps”.
A witness who gave his name as Ferdinand told BFMTV: “He (the attacker) jumped (in the playground), started shouting and then went towards the strollers [prams], repeatedly hitting the little ones with a knife.”
“Mothers were crying, everybody was running,” said George, who owns a nearby restaurant.
A further witness said he saw the attacker assault an elderly man, jumping on him and stabbing him repeatedly. He said he yelled at police to act.
“It’s a place where babysitters and parents take young children to play, and the atmosphere is fantastic,” said Yohan, who works at an ice cream parlour just opposite the park.
Former Liverpool footballer, Anthony Le Tallec, said he was jogging around Lake Annecy when he saw the incident unfold.
He commented: “I see that he’s [the attacker] heading straight for a group of elderly men and women.
“He attacks one grandpa, stabs him once, the cops can’t catch him, so I tell the cops, ‘shoot him’.
“Then they start shooting, they shoot at the person, right in front of me, and he falls to the ground.”
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said it was a “heinous, unspeakable act” and the whole country is in “shock”.
“Of course, all light will have to be shed. But today is the time for emotion,” she said during a press conference.
There is “nothing more abominable than to attack children”, French national assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet said.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “The UK and France have always stood together against acts of violence, and we do so again today.”
Speaking during a press conference with US President Joe Biden, Mr Sunak said he has been in touch with President Macron and is “ready to offer any assistance we can”.
In Paris, politicians interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims.
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Minute silence held for Annecy victims
Francois Astorg, the mayor of Annecy, urged people to avoid the Paquier area of the French alpine town and said his thoughts were with the victims and their families.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
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Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
World
UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.
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Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.
Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
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