A three-year-old British girl on holiday with her family was among four toddlers and two adults stabbed in an “odious and unspeakable” attack in an open-air playground in France on Thursday.

Witnesses described scenes of panic as screaming mothers sought to protect children from the assailant, who rampaged around a lakeside park in Annecy, in the French Alps.

At least one child was stabbed in a pram despite desperate efforts by a woman to push him aside.

Video showed the attack slashing at his victims and shouting “in the name of Jesus Christ.”Police have arrested a suspect, who they identified as a 31-year-old Syrian man who came to Europe a decade ago as a refugee.

Authorities in Sweden have corroborated remarks by France’s interior minister that the suspect was denied asylum in France days before the attack because he was granted asylum in Sweden 10 years go.

The Swedish Migration Agency confirmed the suspect was granted permanent residency in 2013 and, without identifying him, said he subsequently sought Swedish citizenship in 2017 and 2018, both of which applications were denied, and applied again in August last year.

Mr Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said the suspect entered France legally.

He said: “For some reasons we don’t really understand, he applied for asylum in Switzerland, in Italy and in France, which he didn’t need to do as he already had asylum in Sweden for the past 10 years.”

Dozens of tributes including flowers, teddy bears, candles and written messages were left at a park in the French Alps following the stabbing attack that left four children – including a British girl – and two adults injured.

The area, which has a number of wooden structures for children to play on, was open to the public but empty at 12pm local time.

One of the messages left said: “Love Annecy.”

Police say they have arrested a suspect, a 31-year-old Syrian, following the attack.

The suspect in the stabbings of a group of children in the French Alps was denied asylum in France just days before the attack, according to a minister.

Police have identified the suspect as a 31-year-old Syrian. He has been arrested on suspicion of attacking four children and two adults at a lakeside park in Annecy on Thursday.

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the suspect had tried to claim asylum in France, but it was refused on Sunday because he had previously been granted asylum in Sweden 10 years ago.

The four young children stabbed in an open-air playground in France are now reportedly in stable condition.

The children, aged between 22 months and three, were transferred to hospitals in the French Alps and across the Swiss border in Geneva. One of the injured children is a three-year-old British national.

A 70-year-old man was also seriously injured – first by the knifeman and then by police fire during the attack – but is also in stable condition.

A second adult was treated for injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

A woman bravely leapt in front of a pushchair to protect a child during the knife attack at a lakeside park in the French Alps.

The woman got in the way of the killer as he lunged at the innocent child, according to videos and eye witness reports.

Other videos from Thursday’s carnage show a bystander using his backpack in a bid to fend off the attacker after chasing him from the playground.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the attack that saw four children injured on Thursday morning.

Scholz also revealed that the attack in the French Alps town of Annecy had involved a German child.

“Germany is shocked by this odious and despicable attack,” he said.

The suspected attacker was “neither under the influence of drugs nor alcohol” at the time, French prosecutors have said.

The Telegraph reported that the 31-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker was sober when he allegedly stabbed six people in a park in the quiet town of Annecy on Thursday morning.

All of the children – whose ages ranged from 22 months to three years – were rushed to hospital in a critical condition. Local officials have since told the BBC that they are in a stable condition.

A British girl injured in a knife attack at a lakeside park in the French Alps is in stable condition in hospital, according to reports.

The girl, said to be aged three, was one of four children and two adults wounded when the suspect – identified by police as a 31-year-old Syrian – attacked people with a knife in the town of Annecy on Thursday.

Authorities said the children were taken to hospital in critical condition, but Annecy mayor Francois Astorg told French media on Thursday evening they were “stable” and “out of the operating room” – with the Telegraph reporting the girl is now in hospital in Grenoble, a city around an hour-and-a-half away by car.

One of the adults involved suffered serious injuries as a result of both a knife wound from the attacker and a bullet wound from police as they shot at the knifeman while trying to detain him, according to local prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis.

Witnesses said the knifeman shouted “in the name of Jesus Christ” as he launched the attack, including stabbing a child in a pushchair repeatedly as bystanders screamed for help.

Ms Bonnet-Mathis told a press conference on Thursday afternoon the attacker’s motives remain unclear, but do not appear to be related to terrorism.

A picturesque French town has been left reeling after four children were stabbed in a playground horror attack.

Two adults were also injured in the attack in Annecy in the French Alps on Thursday morning. All of the youngsters – who were aged between 22 months and three – were transferred to hospitals in the French Alps and across the Swiss border in Geneva.

One of the injured children is British, the UK foreign secretary James Cleverly confirmed and is believed to have been on holiday at the time.

Oliver Pritchard-Jones reports: