His courage has been much commented on social networks. Faced with the assailant who wounded with a knife at least 6 people including 4 children in Annecy this Thursday morning, a young man tried to intervene several times.
On videos filmed by passers-by and viewed by Le Figaro, we can see a man loaded with a hiking bag on his back, as well as a second smaller in his hand, standing up to the assailant. The young man dodges a blow from the Syrian asylum seeker by protecting himself with his smallest bag, before chasing his opponent to prevent him from entering the children's park again. On another video filmed on the large esplanade of the Pâquier, the man puts down his biggest bag, keeping the small one as protection, to better run after the attacker.
A tour of France of the cathedrals
The "hero with backpacks" quickly expressed himself in turn on Facebook, and for good reason, the young man is called Henri and began more than two months ago a tour of France cathedrals, which he reports via a Facebook page, an Instagram page and a TikTok account. "Union of immediate prayer for the victims of the Annecy attack", first published the young man in story, before specifying that he had gone to the prefecture for "the testimony of witnesses", and to specify: "Pray for the children, I am well".
According to his posts on social networks, Henri began this pilgrimage of cathedrals to the abbey of Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux, near Carpentras, before continuing to Avignon, Arles, Montpellier, Monaco, and going up to Annecy by the Southern Alps. According to an article in Aleteia, the young man would have a degree in philosophy at the IPC. "I have always had a taste for walking, and associating it with cathedrals is in a way to make a great pilgrimage," he explained to the Catholic media in early April, referring to his trip as "a personal and even spiritual process".