A knife attack on Thursday shocked the French Alpine town of Annecy just days before the annual Annecy International Animation Film Festival is set to kick off on Sunday.
An attacker with a knife stabbed several young children and at least one adult, leaving some with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. The motive and identity of the attacker weren’t immediately clear. The attack took place at Le Paquier, the large lawn by Lake Annecy where most events in the town take place.
“The Annecy International Animation Film Festival management and team were shocked to learn about the tragic events that took place on Le Paquier this morning,” organizers said in a statement. “Our thoughts immediately go to the victims and their families.”
The fest, running June 11-17 in the lakeside town 22 miles south of Geneva, Switzerland, is expected to attract some 14,000 animation experts and fans. Nicknamed the “Pearl of French Alps,” it had a population of around 132,000 as of 2020.
In a short tweet, Interior Minster Gerald Darmanin said police had detained the attacker. “Several people including children have been injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy,” he tweeted.
Witnesses said some of the children appeared very young. A man who spoke to broadcaster BFMTV said he saw first-aiders working on “little bodies, 3 or 4 years old, perhaps.”
A local lawmaker, Antoine Armand, said the children were attacked on a playground. Speaking to BFMTV from the National Assembly building in Paris, he said the victims included “very young” children and that they were “savagely attacked.” The attack took place close to a primary school, he said.
National police and an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak about the developing situation both said that four children were among the wounded.
Police said two of the children suffered life-threatening injuries and that the other two were lightly injured. Police said one adult also suffered life-threatening wounds. Both police and the Interior Ministry official cautioned that the number of wounded could evolve because the full details weren’t yet clear.
In Paris, lawmakers interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims.
The assembly president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said: “There are some very young children who are in critical condition and I invite you to respect a minute of silence for them, for their families, and so that, we hope, the consequences of this very grave attack do not lead to the nation grieving.”