Two girls were attacked with a knife in Souffelweyersheim, a town north of Strasbourg in Alsace, near a school on Thursday April 18. The suspect was arrested.
This Thursday, April 18, around 2 p.m., the gendarmes of the town of Souffelweyersheim, a town north of Strasbourg, had to intervene after two girls, aged 11 and 6, were injured in a knife attack. One of the two young girls was standing in front of her school when a man armed with a knife attacked her, the other was in a square very close to the scene of the first attack.
Alerted, the gendarmes went to the scene and were able to arrest the suspect, a 29-year-old man, without difficulty and only a few minutes after the attacks. The man no longer had a knife in his hand according to information from the gendarmerie to AFP. According to a source close to the investigation who spoke to BFM, the attacker is not in full possession of his mental faculties. The gendarmerie indicates for its part that the suspect “is not known to the services” and that his motivations “do not seem to be linked to radicalization”, but the terrorist trail will only be completely ruled out following the study of the profile of the attacker.
The two young girls were taken care of by emergency services and placed in “relative emergency”. The AFP specifies that they suffer from “superficial injuries”. The management of the school near which the attacks occurred took the decision to confine the staff and students for the duration of the operation. Parents of students were, however, authorized to pick up their children around 4 p.m. In a press release, the Bas-Rhin prefecture announced that a “medical-psychological unit” had also been set up in the school. At present, the situation no longer presents any danger.