PARIS — French judges on Saturday passed initial fees of attempted murder to a person suspected of stabbing 4 babies and two adults in a French Alps park, an assault that reverberated throughout France and past.
The suspect is a 31-year-old Syrian refugee with everlasting residency in Sweden. His identify was once now not launched.
The lead prosecutor, Line Bonnet-Mathis, informed a news convention Saturday that the person was once introduced to investigating judges within the lakeside the city of Annecy on Saturday and given fees of attempted murder and armed resistance. He is in custody pending additional investigation.
The prosecutor stated the sufferers are now not in life-threatening situation after Thursday’s assault in and round a playground. The kids, between 22 months and three years outdated, remain hospitalized.
The six sufferers got here from 4 other international locations: France, Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal.
The suspect, a 31-year-old Syrian political refugee with everlasting residency standing in Sweden, has a 3-year-old daughter and spouse dwelling in Sweden, the prosecutor stated.
He was once tested by way of psychiatrists who deemed him have compatibility to stand fees, the prosecutor stated. She stated that the reason for the savage assault remained unclear, nevertheless it didn’t seem to be terrorism-related.
Witnesses stated they heard the attacker point out his daughter, his spouse and Jesus Christ, in step with the prosecutor, who stated he had Christian gadgets with him on the time of the assault.
Police detained the suspect within the lakeside park within the the city of Annecy after bystanders — significantly, a Catholic pilgrim who time and again swung on the attacker with his backpack — sought to discourage him.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the sufferers and their households, first responders and witnesses Friday.
Macron stated two younger French cousins who have been probably the most severely injured have stabilized, and medical doctors have been “very confident.”
The wounded British girl “is awake, she’s watching television,” Macron added. A wounded Dutch girl also has improved and a critically injured adult — who was both knifed and wounded by a shot that police fired as they detained the suspected attacker — is regaining consciousness, Macron said.
The seriously injured adult was treated in Annecy. Portugal’s foreign ministry said he is Portuguese and “now out of danger.” He was wounded “trying to stop the attacker from fleeing from the police,” it said. The second injured adult was discharged from a hospital, his left elbow bandaged.
The pilgrim, Henri, a 24-year-old who is on a nine-month walking and hitchhiking tour of France’s cathedrals, said he’d been setting off to another abbey when the horror unfolded in front of him. The attacker slashed at him, but Henri held his ground and used a weighty backpack he was carrying to swing at the assailant.
Henri’s father said his son “told me that the Syrian was incoherent, saying lots of strange things in different languages, invoking his father, his mother, all the Gods.”
The suspect’s profile fueled renewed criticism from far-right and conservative politicians about French migration policies. But authorities noted that the suspect entered France legally, because he has permanent residency status in Sweden. Sweden and France are both members of the EU and Europe’s border-free travel zone.
He implemented for asylum in France remaining yr and was once refused a couple of days prior to the assault, at the grounds that he had already received asylum in Sweden in 2013, the French inside minister stated.
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