Annecy knifeman who stabbed four kids in playground quizzed by police four days before attack
THE knifeman who stabbed four kids, one a Brit, in a playground in France was quizzed by police four days before the attack.
An officer asked Syrian-born migrant Abdelmasih Hanoun to explain why he was using the lake at the park where the atrocity occurred to wash himself.
It was not clear what action, if any, cops took against Hanoun, 31, who had that day learned his asylum application had been rejected.
He was seen yesterday for the first time since Thursday’s horror in Annecy as he left a police station for court.
The heavily-sedated student nurse, seated on a medical chair, was carried by four cops into a black police car.
He appeared before two judges and was indicted on multiple charges including attempting to murder Brit Ettie Turner, three, French cousins Ennio and Alba, both two, and Peter, a 22-month-old Dutch boy, as well as possessing an offensive weapon.
Devout Christian Hanoun, who has been “totally mute” in custody, is also accused of knifing French adults Manuel, 70, and Youssouf, 78, in the Alpine town’s Le Paquier park.
Hanoun, who made no comment in court, was deemed fit for trial by a psychologist and remanded in custody.
He was heard saying “in the name of Jesus Christ” as he attacked his victims.
Youssouf is out of hospital and the others are in a stable condition.
Hanoun faced deportation as he had settlement status in Sweden where he left his ex-wife and daughter, three.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said it was “a troubling coincidence” his asylum bid was rejected four days before the attack.
Sources, meanwhile, said Ettie, whose family have been at her bedside in hospital, is well enough to be discharged “within the next few days”.