French Prime Minister Says Children Injured In Annecy In Stable Condition After Surgery

French Prime Minister Says Children Injured in Annecy in Stable Condition After Surgery

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Friday that all four children who were stabbed during the attack in Annecy the day prior have been operated on and are in a stable condition

PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th June, 2023) French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Friday that all four children who were stabbed during the attack in Annecy the day prior have been operated on and are in a stable condition.

"I am closely monitoring the condition of these children. Fortunately, all the injured children were operated on and their condition is stable," Borne was quoted as saying by French newspaper Figaro.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived on Friday at the hospital in Grenoble where three of the injured children are being treated. Two are still in the pediatric surgery ward. The fourth child, a Dutch citizen, was transported to a hospital in Geneva.

"The suspect's custody has been extended. No further communication is expected today," Annecy prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said on Twitter.

The attack took place Thursday morning in a park near Lake Annecy in the department of Haute-Savoie. The knifeman injured six people: two adults and four children aged from 22 months to three years.

The attacker was identified as a Syrian born in 1991. He requested political asylum in France in November 2022, but the request was rejected four days prior to the attack on the grounds that he had already been granted refugee status in Sweden.

According to media reports, the attacker had lived in Sweden for more than 10 years, was married, and had a three-year-old child. He has been seeking asylum in France, Italy and Switzerland in the past few years.

Investigators were not immediately able to identify a motive for the crime. The interrogation on Thursday was disrupted by the suspect's unstable behavior, such as rolling on the floor and refusing to answer questions, and the 31-year old was scheduled for a psychiatric evaluation on Friday.