‘Hero with a rucksack’: French media praise knife attack intervener

The profile of the suspected attacker, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee, also fueled renewed political debate about French migration policies.

The attacker slashed at the 24-year-old man with the knife that he used to savagely stab one young child after another in an attack in the French town of Annecy. But rather than run, Henri held his ground — using a weighty backpack he was carrying to swing at the assailant and parry his blade.

French media hailed Henri as “the hero with a rucksack” Friday after he was shown in a video grappling with the assailant and charging after him during the knife attack that critically wounded four children between the ages of 22 months and 3 years old, and also injured two adults.

Henri had a heavy rucksack on his back and was holding another in his hand when the attacker slashed at him. Even after being slashed at, Henri still continued to harass the attacker by pursuing him inside a playground — where the man repeatedly stabbed a child in a stroller — and then out of the park again, carrying his rucksacks all the while. He appeared to hurl one of the sacks at the assailant at one point and then pick it up again to take another swing.

Henri’s father, Francois, said he believed that his son’s dogged pursuit helped dissuade the attacker from stabbing more victims before police wrestled him to the ground.

“He took a lot of risks — when he wasn’t armed, with just his rucksacks,” the father told The Associated Press. “He didn’t stop running after him for many minutes, to stop him from coming back and massacring the kids even more. I think he prevented carnage by scaring him off. Really very courageous.”

Francois asked that their last name not be published, expressing concerns about their family being thrust suddenly and inadvertently into the public eye at a time of shock and outrage in France provoked by the viciousness of Thursday’s attack and the helplessness of its young victims.

The profile of the suspected attacker, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee, also fueled renewed political debate about French migration policies. Critics on the right and far-right of French politics quickly dusted off their arguments that French migration controls are too lax.

For his part, Henri shied away from the “hero” label. He said he “tried to act as all French people should act, or would act.”