A three-year-old British girl who was stabbed in a knife attack in the French Alps will be able to leave hospital in the coming days, prosecutors have said.
French judges have also handed preliminary charges of attempted murder to the man suspected of stabbing a total of four children and two adults.
The three-year-old British girl was on holiday with her parents when she was stabbed at a playground in Annecy on Thursday.
Two French children had to have surgery following the incident and a Dutch child is also in hospital.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to emergency workers who intervened.
Among those who came to the victims’ aid was Henri, the so-called “back-pack hero” who used his bag to stop the attacker.
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French President Emmanuel Macron talks with Henri, the 24-year-old ‘backpack hero’
A French man received minor injuries and a second adult was stabbed several times before they were hit by a police bullet.
The second adult needed urgent surgery but none of the victims are in a life-threatening condition.
Police do not believe the incident is terror-related but have said it would be premature to discuss motivation at this stage.
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The attack took place at a playground in Annecy
The suspect is a 31-year-old Syrian national, named locally and in French media as Abdalmasih H.
He was not previously known to police or the French justice system and has so far refused to speak while in custody.
Prosecutors say the suspect registered with French authorities as having entered the country on 26 October 2022.
He made an asylum application the following day but it was rejected at the beginning of June as he already had been granted the status in Sweden.
Read more:Residents shaken after playground stabbing’You imagine the worst’ say people of Annecy after attack
The suspect arrived in Sweden in 2013 from Turkey, left in May 2022 for Italy and Switzerland before he arrived in France.
He is married and has a child in Sweden, born in April 2020. He has no fixed address and lives in a communal apartment block.
