The alleged perpetrator of the Annecy knife attack, which injured 6 people including four children, lived in Sweden for nearly 10 years. Before coming to France, he resided in the southwestern town of Trollhättan. Arne Herman Antonsson was one of his neighbors. "He was sometimes seen on a bike. He never said "Hello." But when I greeted him, he greeted me back. He was quite lonely. He looked like a pretty normal person," he recalls. "When I saw his picture (on the news), he had hair and a long beard. I had never seen him like this. He was always shaved and without a beard," Arne said.
See alsoFrom Syria to Annecy, via Sweden: the journey of Abdalmasih H. in question
In this city of less than 60,000 inhabitants, residents are stunned. "It's weird to know he lived here," says Alicia. "He lived here in our city. It's so close that it feels like it happened here. There is far too much incomprehensible going on lately," says Annette Jacobsen. Abdalmasih H., a Syrian national, arrived in Sweden in the summer of 2013 where he was granted refugee status. He had left the country to join the France in the fall of 2022. A few days before his attack in Annecy, the man had just had his asylum application refused in France because he already held refugee status in Sweden.
