France has praised Henri, a 24-year-old management and philosophy student, as the “backpack hero” for attempting to stop the perpetrator in the Annecy knife assault with one of his two backpacks.
Four infants and two elders were injured in the knife attack in the peaceful French Alpine village on Thursday. According to authorities, the prime suspect was a Syrian refugee.
Henri, a young Catholic pilgrim on a walking tour of cathedrals, came face to face with the perpetrator who attacked six youngsters in an Annecy park.
He was near the playground in Le Paquier park when he saw the man attacking children in a stroller as their mother desperately tried to shield them on Thursday.
A video of the attack, taken by a bystander showed the assailant jump a low wall into a children’s playground and repeatedly lunge at a child in a stroller, pushing aside a woman who tries to fend him off, while Henri pursues him and hits him with his backpack.
He is then seen pursuing the assailant across the wide expanse of the Le Paquier grasslands, dropping one of his backpacks to run faster, as police also start giving chase.
So far, most of France only knows him by his first name.
French media have simply called him “héros au sac à dos” (the backpack hero).
Europe 1 Radio said Henri would meet President Emmanuel Macron later on Friday.
