A British three-year-old girl who was stabbed in a playground attack in France was awake and watching television on Friday Emmanuel Macron said – as he also praised the heroism of a young Catholic pilgrim who fended off the knifeman with a backpack.
The French president said he had heard “positive” news about the four children – aged between 22 months and three years old – injured in the attack in a lakeside park in Annecy. Two men in their 70s were also injured.
Mr Macron and his wife Brigitte, visited three of the children and their families in hospital in Grenoble about 100km (62 miles) from Annecy. The British girl who received surgery, named as Ettie, had “woken up” and was “watching TV”, said President Macron. According to Agence-France Presse, he added: “Doctors are optimistic” suggesting that “everything is going the right way”.
A Dutch toddler – who was being treated in Geneva – and two French cousins aged two and three, were also said to be in a stable condition.
Mr and Ms Macron later travelled to Annecy, where they sat at the bedside of one of the injured men, who was both knifed and wounded by a shot that police fired as they detained the suspected attacker. Mr Macron said he is regaining consciousness. The second injured adult was discharged from a hospital and was among dozens of people that Mr Macron met and thanked, his left elbow still bandaged.
“The first thing doctors told me ... is that these children were saved by the swiftness of the collective intervention,” Mr Macron said. “Thank you immeasurably for your courage.”
One of those was Henri, 24, a Catholic pilgrim who is on a nine-month walking and hitchhiking tour of France’s cathedrals and happened to be in the Alpine town of Annecy when the attack occurred. French media hailed Henri as “the hero with a backpack” after he was shown in a video using a weighty backpack he was carrying to swing at the assailant and fend off his blade.
“You experienced very hard moments, traumatising,” Mr Macron said. “I am very proud of you.”
Henri had a heavy backpack and was holding another in his hand when the attacker slashed at him. Henri continued to harass him, pursuing the man inside a playground – where he stabbed a child in a stroller – and then out of the park again, carrying his backpacks. Henri appeared to hurl one at the assailant at one point and then pick it up again to take another swing.
Henri said he was powered by his Catholic faith. “When you know that you’re loved by God and that he saved our lives, you can act without thinking too much about your own [life] to try and save those of the children,” he told French broadcaster BFMTV.
Henri asked Mr Macron to be invited to the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris next year, following repairs to the cathedral damaged in a fire in 2019. “I’ll take care of it personally,” the French leader replied.
The management graduate said to BFMTV that that he was not the only civilian who put themselves in harm’s way. He had “acted like any French person would”, he said. “Many other people intervened in whatever way they could. I saw a park employee try to hit the attacker with his big plastic spade.”
Henri’s father, Francois, said he believed that his son’s dogged pursuit helped dissuade the attacker from stabbing more victims before police wrestled him to the ground.
“He took a lot of risks – when he wasn’t armed, with just his backpacks,” the father said. “He didn’t stop running after him for many minutes, to stop him from coming back and massacring the kids even more ... Really very courageous.”
Francois asked that their last name not be published, expressing concerns about their family being thrust suddenly and inadvertently into the public eye at a time of shock and outrage in France provoked by the attack.
Henri had posted on Instagram in late May about being two months into a nine-month pilgrimage which would see him walk and hitchhike across France, having started in Provence.
Many flocked to his social media pages to hail his courage, with one person writing: “May God bless you. You did what you could at that moment, you did not give up, you did not run. You are an angel.”
“Bravo for your courage and bravery, you saved lives today, you can be proud of yourself my friend,” wrote one commenter, while another said: “France has a hero tonight, a humble hero.”
Many of the hundreds who wrote to share their thanks and “deep respect” for his “incredible” bravery called for him to be awarded the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, while others living across France offered to host him as he continues his pilgrimage.
The suspect – a Syrian man with refugee status in Sweden – has had his custody extended and is due to undergo a psychiatric assessment. The 31-year-old is thought to have been living homeless in Annecy and recently had an asylum claim rejected in France, thanks to already holding the status in Sweden. On that French application he said he was a “Syrian Christian”. No terrorist motive is suspected.
Commenting on the suggestion that the suspect in Thursday’s attacks also identifies as a Christian, Henri said it was “profoundly unchristian to attack the vulnerable”.
A mass was held in Annecy Cathedral in tribute to the victims and their families later on Friday, church authorities said.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
