Attack in France

The BBC website is saying two of the children are still in a life threatening condition. I think it was the mayor who said they were all stable. I assume the adults weren't so badly injured. The rush to get information does seem to cause confusion at times, lets hope for more positive news soon.

Franbern you're absolutely right, it could have been so much worse if he'd had a gun.

News this morning is that all the children are now in a 'stable' condition.

After hearing and being, naturally,horrified by these attacks, my next reaction was to say thank goodness he did not have access to gun(s), as they would all, plus more, be dead.

His country of birth, no more than his religion (he keeps stating he is a Christian), is totally irrelevant. Surely, anyone who carries out this sort of horror attack is and must be mentally sick!!

Do not think that freedom of movement has any relevance either (except to this victims), as whichever country he was in when he carried out such an attack it would be just as horrific!!

So pleased that doctors/nurses, etc have saved the lives of all those involved, and hope they can all receive appropriate counselling also.

Refugee status does not automatically give you citizenship.

Ahh that answers my question, thank you.

I see that Sweden are taking a tougher line with potential asylum seekers. There will be a requirement for learning the language and adhering to a Swedish way of life. They have suffered a large increase, in particular, in sexual crimes.
I don't know why this man has left his wife and child in Sweden. We might never know why he carried out that dreadful attack yesterday. I'm thinking of all those poor families at their child's hospital beds this morning and praying that they will all make good recoveries.

pascal30

pascal30

maddyone

Just why? I don’t understand why. The country that gave him, I assume it was him, refuge.

I think he might have been or about to be refused citizenship and therefore not been given asylum

sorry that update doesn't appear to be correct I've just heard he had refugee status in Sweden..

Refugee status does not automatically give you citizenship.

ronib
Allsorts if a person claims asylum in a European country in the EU, it gives them the right to live in any other EU country. Freedom of movement I believe.

Apparently the attacker had been granted asylum in Sweden but had gone into France and claimed asylum there and had been refused a few days before the attack. I don’t understand why, with free movement, anyone would need to claim asylum in another EU country if they had already been accepted in another. Are the rules different for refugees?

Emily Jones was a seven year old child just walking along in a park in Bolton, parents a few feet behind, when she was stabbed to death by a mentally ill Albanian woman who shouldn't have been here. Emily's father slammed the authorities who let her remain, every day those parents must live with the fact that their child would still be here if proper background checks had been in place.

Allsorts if a person claims asylum in a European country in the EU, it gives them the right to live in any other EU country. Freedom of movement I believe.

Allsorts
That’s the benefit of free movement of people ( sarcastic emoji)

What does it mean to know who is in the country? I have no idea whether the man down the road is a psychopath, how could I.

How the people involved in this evil act will recover I don't know. It's too hard to think of. Just babies slaughtered.
Why if he had refuge in Sweden was he in France. Don't they check anyone? No doubt we would have had him next. He should have been sent back. .All those calling for taking everyone should rethink. You have to know whom is in your country. They should stay in first safe country until a check is made. If they don't send them back.
I was in a bank yesterday, a very unkempt man ran through knocking people over, babbling in some foreign language, the staff behind their screen looked on, unable to do anything and off he ran, to where I don't know. He was obviously very mentally ill.

I have no inclination to even mention the cowardly lowlife. Every single thought I have is for the children and their families.

This.

There has been no overt discussion here on French tv about race or religion, but believe me political questions are definitely being asked.

I have no inclination to even mention the cowardly lowlife. Every single thought I have is for the children and their families.

I don’t know why anyone would even think on the lines of race and I think that says more about the writer’s perceptions and bias than anything. It was a horrendous act. We still haven’t heard anything about it here,though. Wonder why ?

Also, unless you believe in some kind of original sin, evil people are not born but made.

Also some kind of attempt to find "why/how so it could be prevented.

Dickens

PS

Trying to understand the motives of the mad man is not to sympathise with him, on my part.

When terrible things happen I think we look for explanations as to why - to make sense of it - the alternative is to accept that we live in a mad and evil world, and that's too terrifying to deal with.

very insightful, probably why I try to figure it out.

It wasn’t random because he took a knife. His ethnicity really has nothing to do with it. Evil people come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, genders, and ethnicities. He may have had problems in his marriage but that’s neither an excuse nor a reason to attack anyone else, let alone babies. He may have had mental health issues but so do millions of others the world over but they don’t go out to attack and possibly kill babies.
I wonder why, but I cannot fathom a reason. It’s just evil. Unfortunately some people just are - they’re just evil.

Random???.... He had the weapon with him.......he slashed at toddler's and old people....it was intentional!!

brex

Everyone saying he may have mh problems.. that is the biggest excuse used these days for anything that happens. Makes it seem like everyone with MH is being tarred as a raving lunatic. And that's how they get away with a soft sentence. Glad the police shot and killed him..its what he deserved. Stabbing innocent children, a 22 month old baby, he was a waste of humanity...and there's not much around these days

He is still alive.

PS

Trying to understand the motives of the mad man is not to sympathise with him, on my part.

When terrible things happen I think we look for explanations as to why - to make sense of it - the alternative is to accept that we live in a mad and evil world, and that's too terrifying to deal with.

ronib

I thought one news channel said that the perpetrator had a 3 year old and that his marriage had broken down. Also his family were living in Sweden.
It highlights how dire the life of a refugee can become for this man to have committed this terrible senseless act on innocent children. I wonder what support services were available to him in France?

It's not unknown for men whose lives have spiralled out of their control to murder even their own children in acts of vengeance against their wives, or those they believe are conspiring against them... or both.

Where ethnicity might come into it is if the perpetrator is from a cultural background that places men as the dominant being both in political and social terms. The loss of power, authority and agency seems to be something they cannot deal with.

But that's not always the case either.

I cannot imagine the trauma those children experienced. And their parents must be stunned with the same trauma - how on earth will they ever get over this? Their lives have changed forever. I hope to God those poor children survive. It hardly bears thinking about.

Yes he was under the care of social services as he had autism and personality disorder. He was quite sane in his planning. He wanted to be on the news. At trial the judge wasn’t having any of it and sentenced him to life with a minimum of 15 years.

I find it strange so many of you have decided the French attacker is mentally ill or has had a psychotic episode due to his marriage breaking down. Pure supposition. Some people are evil. I can’t remember anyone defending Jo Cox’s murderer.

Yes, I remember. This attacker sounds like one of those spiteful men who kill children when a woman turns them down or leaves them.

Do you remember when a British man flung a French six year-old off a balcony outside Tate Britain a few years ago? The man, Jonty Bravery, was apparently mentally ill. The little boy is still recovering, I think, after having broken many of his bones.