Authorities have identified the man who allegedly stabbed several people, including four children, at a French playground as a 31-year-old Syrian refugee who reportedly yelled, “In the name of Jesus Christ!”
The suspect, Abdelmasih Hanoun, a recently divorced father of one, has undergone a psychiatric examination after the harrowing attack, which critically injured a 3-year-old British girl, a 22-month-old Dutch boy, and two French cousins, aged 2 and 3, the Times of London reported.
Also wounded in the rampage were two adults, one of whom is a 78-year-old grandfather who was hit by a shot fired by police as they pursued the attacker, officials said.
One of the two adults was described as a heroic Portuguese national.
“In the course of the tragic event, a Portuguese citizen, while trying to stop the attacker from fleeing from the police, was seriously injured and is now out of danger. For this act of courage and bravery, we thank him profoundly,” the Portuguese Foreign Ministry said.
On Friday, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that all four children were in stable condition after they underwent surgery for their life-threatening wounds.
They are “under constant medical surveillance,” she said.
Lead prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said the suspect’s motives were unknown, but didn’t appear to be terrorism-related.
Hanoun was described by French media as a homeless man with no psychiatric or criminal record, and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
During his caught-on-video attack, he reportedly shouted, “In the name of Jesus Christ!”
French authorities rejected his asylum application five days ago on the grounds that he already had refugee status in Sweden and could not obtain it in another EU country, according to the news outlet.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described the refugee matter as a “troubling coincidence,” telling broadcaster TF1 that “for reasons not well explained he had also sought asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France.”
Hanoun had been sleeping on a street in central Annecy for the last six months after leaving Sweden when his application for citizenship was rejected for a second time, the London Times reported.
His mother, who has lived in the US for 10 years, said she was “in a state of shock” about the attack. She said her former daughter-in-law had said Hanoun was depressed, according to the paper.
“He applied for nationality but was rejected,” presumably because he had served in the Syrian military, she said, adding “that probably drove him mad.”
Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron has met the family of the wounded 3-year-old British girl named Ettie, who was on a holiday with her family and at the playground at the time of the attack, the London Times reported.
Ettie and the French cousins were transferred to Grenoble, and the Dutch boy was sent to a Geneva hospital across the border in Switzerland, according to the outlet.
Macron and his wife, Brigitte, also visited the French children.
With Post Wires
