By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-10-08 05:36:06 | Updated at 2026-10-08 06:33:43
1 hour ago
A man who allegedly stabbed a British toddler at a playground in the French Alps will go on trial charged with attempted murder, prosecutors have said.
Abdalmasih Hanoun is also charged with the attempted murder of 12 other people after the knife attack at a lakeside park in Le Paquier, Annecy, south-east France, in June 2023.
Mr Hanoun is also charged with armed resistance after the attack on the British girl, who was three at the time and was named locally as Ettie.
She had been visiting the area with her parents, officials said, and was one of four children, aged between 22 months and three years, who were wounded, with two elderly adults also injured.
At the time, French prosecutors said the girl suffered a single stab wound, but her condition was never "vital".
In an update provided this week, the French public prosecutor’s office said Hanoun would face trial at Haute-Savoie Assize Court in Annecy within the next year.
The announcement came after the defendant’s mental state was assessed by a panel of experts.
The panel found he was not "suffering from a psychological or neuropsychological disorder" at the time of the attack.
A man has been charged in connection with the incident
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The translated statement read: "By a decision dated October 6 2026, the Indictment Chamber of the Chambery Court of Appeal ordered that Abdalmasih Hanoun be back before the Haute-Savoie Assize Court in the case known as the ‘paquier’ case.
"The defendant will have to answer charges of attempted murder in respect of 13 victims, violence with a weapon without total work incapacity in respect of two victims, and armed resistance.
"The Indictment Chamber considered that since the person under investigation was manifestly not, at the time of the events and according to the second panel of experts, suffering from a psychological or neuropsychological disorder abolishing his discernment or ability to control his actions, there could be no grounds justifying the decision not to indict Mr Abdalmasih Hanoun."
Floral tributes left at the scene in Le Paquier, Annecy
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The statement added that the decision to proceed with a trial can be appealed to the French Court of Cassation.
Shortly after the attack, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte visited the British child and other victims in hospital before travelling to the lakeside town where the attack took place.
