A video purportedly showing a man running after stabbing five people on Thursday has appeared on social media. The clip has been posted by a freelance journalist and is gaining traction on Twitter. The suspect is a Syrian in his early 30s who was granted refugee status in Sweden in April, according to police.
The six-second clip shows the man wearing black shorts and sweatshirt running across a park and locals chasing him. The man is also wearing a cap. Some screams can be heard in the background.
Four children are among those stabbed in the town of Annecy in the French Alps.
According to news agency AFP, the man armed with a knife attacked a group of children aged around three years old as they played in a park near the lake in the town at around 9:45 am (local time).
"He wanted to attack everyone. I moved away and he lunged at an old man and woman and stabbed the old man," former professional footballer Anthony Le Tallec, who was running in the park, told the local Dauphine Libere newspaper.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that the culprit "has been arrested thanks to the rapid reaction of security forces".
At least three of the victims were in critical condition, AFP further reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron called it an "attack of absolute cowardice".
"The nation is shocked. Our thoughts are with (the victims) as well as their families and the emergency services," he tweeted.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne's office announced she was travelling to the scene and MPs in the national parliament held a minute's silence as news of the attack broke in the French media.
Annecy is a scenic town in the French Alps close to the border with Switzerland popular with tourists.
