‘Hero with a rucksack’: French media praise knife attack intervener – National | 24CA News
The attacker slashed on the 24-year-old man with the knife that he used to savagely stab one younger little one after one other in an assault within the French city of Annecy. But somewhat than run, Henri held his floor — utilizing a weighty backpack he was carrying to swing on the assailant and parry his blade.
French media hailed Henri as “the hero with a rucksack” Friday after he was proven in a video grappling with the assailant and charging after him in the course of the knife assault that critically wounded 4 kids between the ages of twenty-two months and three years outdated, and likewise injured two adults.
Henri had a heavy rucksack on his again and was holding one other in his hand when the attacker slashed at him. Even after being slashed at, Henri nonetheless continued to harass the attacker by pursuing him inside a playground — the place the person repeatedly stabbed a toddler in a stroller — after which out of the park once more, carrying his rucksacks all of the whereas. He appeared to hurl one of many sacks on the assailant at one level after which decide it up once more to take one other swing.
Henri’s father, Francois, stated he believed that his son’s dogged pursuit helped dissuade the attacker from stabbing extra victims earlier than police wrestled him to the bottom.
“He took a lot of risks — when he wasn’t armed, with just his rucksacks,” the daddy instructed The Associated Press. “He didn’t stop running after him for many minutes, to stop him from coming back and massacring the kids even more. I think he prevented carnage by scaring him off. Really very courageous.”
Francois requested that their final title not be revealed, expressing considerations about their household being thrust immediately and inadvertently into the general public eye at a time of shock and outrage in France provoked by the viciousness of Thursday’s assault and the helplessness of its younger victims.
The profile of the suspected attacker, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee, additionally fueled renewed political debate about French migration insurance policies. Critics on the precise and far-right of French politics rapidly dusted off their arguments that French migration controls are too lax.
For his half, Henri shied away from the “hero” label. He stated he “tried to act as all French people should act, or would act.”
“In that moment, you unplug your brain and react a bit like an animal by instinct,” he instructed broadcaster BFMTV. “It was impossible for me to witness that without reacting.”
“I am far from alone in having reacted. Many other people around started, like me, to run after him to try to scare him, push him away. And other people immediately went over to the children to take care of the injured.”
“I remember there was also a municipal worker who arrived from the right with a large plastic shovel to try to hit him,” Henri stated.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne stated Friday that every one 4 kids underwent surgical procedure for his or her life-threatening knife wounds and “are under constant medical surveillance.”
“Their situation is stable,” she stated.
Government spokesman Olivier Veran, a medical physician by coaching, stated that two of the youngsters stay in crucial situation.
Henri, proper, the ‘backpack hero’ , listens to French President Emmanuel Macron delivering a speech as he meets rescue forces in Annecy, French Alps, Friday, June 9, 2023. (Denis Balibouse/Pool by way of AP).
Associated Press
President Emmanuel Macron and his spouse Brigitte traveled to a hospital treating three of the 4 kids. Motives for the assault in and round a kids’s lakeside playground within the Alpine city of Annecy remained unexplained.
The suspect, who has refugee standing in Sweden, stays in custody.
Psychiatrists are evaluating him, Veran stated.
Henri’s father stated that in cellphone dialog after the assault, his son “told me that the Syrian was incoherent, saying lots of strange things in different languages, invoking his father, his mother, all the Gods.”
“In short, he was possessed by who knows what, but possessed by folly, that’s certain,” the daddy instructed the AP.
He stated he did present the disturbing video of the assault to his different kids and his spouse, and added that he and his spouse had bother sleeping even after studying that Henri was protected.
“We thanked providence and his guardian angels.,” he stated.
Most of the youngsters had been rushed to a hospital within the French Alpine metropolis of Grenoble — the primary cease for Macron and his spouse on Friday morning. They didn’t converse to reporters as they went inside.
The fourth wounded little one was being handled in Geneva, in neighboring Switzerland.
Two of the 4 kids are French and the opposite two had been vacationers — one British, the opposite Dutch.
Two adults additionally suffered knife wounds — life-threatening for one them, authorities stated. One of the adults was injured each with a knife and by a shot fired by police as they had been detaining the suspected attacker.
Portugal’s overseas ministry stated {that a} Portuguese citizen was one of many two adults wounded.
“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 ministry stated.
French authorities stated the suspect had just lately been refused asylum in France, as a result of Sweden had already granted him everlasting residency and refugee standing a decade in the past.
Lead prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis stated the person’s motives had been unknown, however didn’t seem like terrorism-related. He was armed with a folding knife, she stated.
© 2023 The Associated Press
