A man dressed in black shorts with a blue scarf tied around his head is seen in a video stabbing six people shortly after 9:30 am on June 8, including four children, in a busy park near Lake Annecy, in south-eastern France. Of the four children injured in the assault, one was aged just 22 months, two were two-year-olds, and the eldest was three.

Three of the victims, two children and an adult, are in a critical state in a local hospital, according to sources in French news reports.

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No 'obvious terrorist motive'

In a video viewed by the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) and confirmed by a source close to the case, the attacker can be heard twice saying "in the name of Jesus Christ" in English.

The assailant was also reportedly wearing a cross when he was arrested shortly after the attack by Lake Annecy at around 9:45 am on June 8.

The attack sent shockwaves through France. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne rushed to the lakeside town around 30 kilometers south of the Swiss city of Geneva. "We are shocked by this heinous, unspeakable act," she told reporters at a press conference a few hundred meters from the scene of the tragedy.

Investigation hopes to 'shed more light'

"The investigation will make it possible to specify both the path, the profile of this assailant and naturally more light will be shed on this crime".

According to local prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis, "as it stands, we have no elements that could lead us to believe that there is a terrorist motive."

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The man was "homeless" and he had no psychiatric history, said the prosecutor, adding that an investigation had been opened against him with the charges of "attempted assassination". The suspect "is either uninjured or very slightly injured".

Refugee in Sweden and family father

The suspect is reported to be of Syrian nationality, and information has emerged that he was born in 1991.

The man has been named as Abdalmasih H. and he had been reportedly living in Sweden for ten years, where he obtained refugee status. In the Nordic country, he was married to a Swedish woman also from the Middle East, with whom he had a child, aged three today, according to a police source.

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The young woman, who shared her life with him until last year in Trollhättan in southwestern Sweden, expressed her disbelief. It seems the couple were divorced just a few months ago and she says that she did not "know what happened to him".

"What you're telling me is terrible. But I haven't been in touch with him, I don't know where he lives, or how he is psychologically," she told AFP by phone. "He was very nice, I don't understand".

'Unable to obtain Swedish citizenship'

According to his ex-wife, the Syrian left Sweden because he "had been unable to obtain Swedish citizenship." The Swedish Migration Authority said the young man applied for and received a residence permit in 2013, but has repeatedly failed to obtain citizenship since 2017.

The couple had met in Turkey. "We fell in love and we came here [to Sweden]. After two years we got married […] We separated because I didn't want to leave Sweden," she said.

The woman also confirmed Abdalmasih H. left for France seven months ago.

In a rare exchange with his ex-wife after his departure, the assailant explained that he lived "in a church" in France. "I don't have a lot of news anymore, he was very elusive. He called me four months ago [...] I don't know much more, he is mainly in contact with his family who lives in the United States", said the young woman.

Many Syrians, including a large Christian community, have taken refuge in Sweden fleeing the war in their country from 2011.

With AFP