Syrian knifeman who stabbed children faces French court

The knife man who brutally injured children, including a British girl, in eastern France made his first public appearance today since the attack – in a doctor’s chair and surrounded by police.

Self-described Syrian Christian Abdelmasih Hanoun, 31, was taken from a secure police station in Annecy to the Palais de Justice on Saturday morning.

There he was expected to appear before a judge, who was expected to charge him with a series of offenses related to Thursday’s attacks.

“Hanoun left the commissariat shortly after 10 a.m., with four officers carrying his chair,” an investigative source said.

“The chair is a medical chair normally used by firefighters to get the injured out of burning buildings.”

He was carried in a medical chair after being shot by French police during his arrest

Abdelmasih Hanoun, 31, pictured, is accused of assaulting four children and two adults

Hanoun had dropped his head back and appeared to be barely conscious.

He himself was injured by police after the attack, when video footage caught him saying the words “In the name of Jesus Christ” as he repeatedly stabbed four children and two adults with a knife.

Among them were British girl Ettie Turner, three years old, and three younger children, as well as two adults.

All were ‘stable’ on Saturday and recovering well, with Ettie well enough to watch television.

Also targeted were two French cousins ​​named Ennio and Alba, both two, and Peter, a 22-month-old Dutch boy.

The two adults attacked were Manuel, 70, and Yusuf, 78, who was also accidentally hit by a police bullet.

Despite being a rejected asylum seeker who was deported, Hanoun continued to sleep in Annecy.

A source who works on a pontoon on Lake Annecy said he saw Hanoun “every day for the two months leading up to the attack.”

The source said: ‘He was dressed in black – black backpack, dark glasses, beard, and he was wearing a headdress to protect him from the sun – it could have been a t-shirt, this was not a religious sign’.

Tributes have been left at the scene of the attack, including a balloon that says Love For the Children

Line Bonnet-Mathis, the Annecy prosecutor who is leading the investigation into the crimes, confirmed that Hanoun ‘will appear before a judge on Saturday’

Line Bonnet-Mathis, the Annecy prosecutor who is leading the investigation into the crimes, confirmed that Hanoun “will appear before a judge on Saturday”.

Hanoun has “tempered tantrums” in custody and has “not specified any motive for the attacks.”

The divorced father of a three-year-old girl was denied asylum in France six days ago and was on the verge of deportation.

Despite this, there were no immediate attempts to deport him or track his movements.

Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said this was a “disturbing coincidence” and added: “For reasons that have not been properly clarified, he had sought asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France.”

Hanoun arrived in Sweden 10 years ago, having served in the Syrian army during the country’s ongoing civil war.

He married a Swedish woman he met in Turkey, and they had a daughter, now three years old, before the couple separated about eight months ago.

Hanoun was twice denied Swedish citizenship, and this is said to have motivated him to move to France on his own.

The multiple stabbings follow a string of similar crimes in France dating back to 2015, most of them related to Islamist terrorism.