France stabbing – latest: Annecy locals attend mass as Mayor says injured children are ‘stable’

Father Didier Milani and Bishop Yves Le Saux were pictured hosting the packed service in Annecy on Friday

Flowers and toys laid in tribute at Annecy park after knifeman stabbed children and adults

Locals have attended a mass for the victims of an “unfathomable” knife attack at a lakeside playpark in southeastern France.

Father Didier Milani and Bishop Yves Le Saux were pictured hosting the service in Annecy on Friday, one day after the incident in which four young children and two pensioners were injured, to a church packed full of people praying for the victims.

On Friday afternoon the Mayor of Annecy said he was “confident” about the condition of the children involved in the attack.

Francois Astorg told reporters close to the scene: “The children are stable right now, the adults are much better.”

A suspect has been arrested and identified as a 31-year-old Syrian refugee, who authorities say had been refused asylum in France days earlier, as he had been granted refugee status in Sweden earlier this year.

Well-wishers continued to visit the park on Friday morning to lay flowers and other tributes for those injured in the attack. The children are between 22 months and three years old.

Key Points

• Emmanuel Macron meets family of British girl, aged 3, stabbed in Annecy attack
• French president shakes hand of young pilgrim hailed across France as ‘backpack hero’
• 31-year-old suspect had ‘no apparent terrorist motive’, says Annecy prosecutor
• French National Assembly holds minute's silence for stabbing victims
• Ex-Liverpool footballer witnessed attack, says he saw ‘injured children on the ground’
• Schools put on ‘lockdown’ after attack, deputy mayor confirms

[8 June 2023 13:55 · Eleanor Noyce]

One of injured children in French knife attack was a British national, Cleverly confirms

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly has confirmed that one of the children injured in the knife attack in Annecy is a British national.

Cleverly was speaking at an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) news conference in Paris.

[8 June 2023 13:23 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Archbishop of Annecy says tragedy ‘poses questions about violence'

Yves Le Saux, the archbishop of Annecy, has said that a mass will be held on Friday in Annecy cathedral in tribute to the victims and their families.

He said: “This tragedy poses questions about violence that is running through our society and pushes us to work every harder, together, to fight it.”

[8 June 2023 13:07 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Four children wounded in knife attack in French town, two in critical condition

A Syrian national wounded four young children and an adult in a knife attack in a park in the southeastern French town of Annecy on Thursday, police said, and some of the victims were in critical condition.

The attacker was a Syrian national with legal refugee status in France, a police official told Reuters. He was not known to security agencies and his motives were unclear, an investigative source said. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that the attacker had been arrested. BFM TV showed footage of several policemen overpowering an individual in the park.

Two children and one adult were in life-threatening condition, while two children were slightly hurt, police said. The wounded children were aged between 22 months and 3 years, they said.

“Children and one adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Twitter, calling the attack “an act of absolute cowardice”.

[8 June 2023 13:03 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

France stabbings: Ex-Liverpool footballer witnessed attack, says he saw ‘injured children on the ground’

Former Liverpool footballer Anthony Le Tallec has said he witnessed the stabbing attack in a lakeside park in the town of Annecy on Thursday morning that left a number of children badly injured.

Four young children and an adult were injured in the incident, which began when a man armed with a knife entered their playground, according to police, with two of the children and the adult battling life-threatening injuries.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

Mr Le Tallec, who retired in 2021 and now works as a coach at the Alpine town’s football club said: “I was running by the lake and I saw around ten people running in the opposite direction to me.”

[8 June 2023 13:03 · Chris Stevenson]

‘Everyone was running'

Witnesses said at least one of the children wounded in the attack was in a stroller.

"He jumped [in the playground], started shouting and then went towards the strollers, repeatedly hitting the little ones with a knife," a witness who gave his name as Ferdinand told BFM TV.

"Mothers were crying, everybody was running," said George, another witness and owner of a nearby restaurant.

[8 June 2023 12:28 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Former Liverpool player Anthony Le Tallec says he witnessed attack

Former Liverpool FC footballer Anthony Le Tallec says he witnessed part of the attack.

Speaking in a video on Instagram, he says he was running by the lake in Annecy, and recalls people running towards him telling him to flee - having themselves seen a knifeman attacking children.

Le Tallec says the suspect then appeared in front of him, chased by police officers.

“He came near me, so I moved, I moved away,” he says.

Le Tallec adds: “I said to the cops, ‘shoot him! Kill him!’

“He attacked once, twice and then they started to shoot him.”

[8 June 2023 12:25 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Knife attacker injures several, including children, in French Alpine town

Several children – all around the age of three – have been stabbed in an attack in the town of Annecy in the French alps.

President Emmanuel Macron called the attack an act of “absolute cowardice” and said the “nation is in shock”.

A man armed with a knife is believed to have entered a children’s playground in a park near the town’s renowned lake, according to local media reports. French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

Four young children and an adult were injured, according to police. Initial reports suggested up to eight children and one adult had been victims of the attack. That number could be subject to change as the situation evolves.

Police said two of the children suffered life-threatening injuries while the other two are slightly hurt. They added that the adult also suffered life-threatening wounds.

[8 June 2023 12:25 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Welcome to our liveblog where we will keep you updated with the latest from Annecy, France where several children were stabbed.