France knife attacker did not have ‘terrorist motive’: prosecutor

A suspect, identified by police as a 31-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker, was detained and did not appear to have a terrorist motive, according to the local prosecutor.

The youngest victim in the quiet town of Annecy was just 22 months old and investigators are trying to understand the reasons for the frenzied rampage in a sunny public park at around 9.45am.

Video appearing to show the attack in a children’s play park in the Alpine and lakeside town of Annecy, 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the Swiss city of Geneva, was posted on social media. The horrific scenes showed a man in dark glasses and with a blue scarf covering his head brandishing a knife, as people screamed for help.

Witnesses described the knifeman running around a public park on the banks of Lake Annecy in a frenzy, apparently attacking people at random, before he was shot by police.

Read more: France 24