A Syrian Christian refugee attacked six people yesterday with a knife in a park in the French city of Annecy. The events were recorded by some of the attendees and quickly went viral on French social networks. In the images, it is observed how a man tried to scare away the attacker using the only instrument he had at hand, a backpack. One day after the event, this mysterious young man has become a national phenomenon and has been dubbed “the backpack hero.”
His real name is Henri and he is 24 years old. The young man has a degree in philosophy and was in the middle of a walking trip to see the cathedrals of France. He began his journey two and a half months ago, skirting the Mediterranean coast and then heading north. He had already covered 1,700 kilometers on foot when he was in Annecy, a French city south of Geneva, on June 8.
It was in a park in that town where the young man had to defend himself against a man who decided to attack several children and adults who were present there. In the videos available online, you can see the backpack with which he travels and another bag with which he tried to scare away the attacker. During the attack, Henri suffered some minor injuries, for which he was treated by the health services.
After the facts, users of social networks found his profile on the Internet and began to follow him en masse. On his Instagram page, which has 83,000 followers, Henri posted an image in which he mentioned the following: “Thank you for all the messages of support from him! I am thinking particularly of the victims and their parents.†In the same text, he also explained that his “adventure does not stop”, so he will continue his nine-month journey.
Henri has declared on the BFM channel that he acted “by instinct” and that “everyone would have done it in my place”. In the same way, he has shown his willingness to remove any halo of a national hero. “I clearly noticed that he was a guy who was not in a normal state” and that “he seemed like a furious madman”, he explained in reference to the attacker.
French President Emmanuel Macron met Henri today and thanked the courage of citizens like him, who stood between the attacker and the victims.
The attack with a knife has caused a commotion in France, where the different political leaders have lamented the event. Two children and a man remain seriously injured. Two other children are still in serious condition, although all are stable and the information about their prognosis “is positive.” The injured children are between 22 months and three years old.
