The story of Henri, the “backpack hero” who faced the Annecy striker

Nicknamed the “backpack hero”, Henri intervened between the victims and the aggressor during a knife attack in the city of Annecy, a few kilometers from the border of France with Switzerland, in the French Alps. At 24, the young man became a national hero and came to meet President Emmanuel Macron, to whom he made a special request.

Putting his life in danger, and only protected by the backpack he carried, Henri was in the middle of a “tour of France of cathedrals”, when he intervened to stop the attack on Thursday. “I tried to protect these children by turning off my brain,” he told French media.

The videos have gone viral: without removing his backpack and handbag, a young man challenges the man with a knife, who had just attacked six people, four children and two adults, in Annecy. The “backpack hero”, as we began to call him on social networks, confronts the attacker and he ends up running away.

Henri d’Anselme walked towards the attacker, a Syrian refugee named Abdalmasih H., using his backpack as a shield to protect his body from stab wounds, shouting to relatives: “Help me stop him.”

The 31-year-old detainee is still in custody, Thursday he was questioned and for the moment The reasons that led him to commit the attack are unknown. He had requested asylum in several countries, including France, when he already had refugee status in Sweden, where he had been living for several years. France had denied it only a few days before committing the attack.

A friend of Henri, Benjamin Poret, described him to the Journal du Dimanche: “If they were to go into battle, I wouldn’t be the first one they called on their side. He weighs 50 kilos all wet, he’s a great stick and he’s dizzy. But this Thursday, he put his fear of danger aside in a jiffy.

A graduate in business management and a former contributor to a Catholic magazine, “L’homme nouveau”, this is not the first time that Henri has made himself known. Since March 25, this fervent Catholic has embarked on a “tour of France of cathedrals” that matters through social media.

On TikTok, his account “El canto de las cathedrals” has 6,000 subscribers. On May 29, he said in a message that he had already visited 24 of these churches, in the nearly 1,300 kilometers he had covered on foot or hitchhiking on the highway. He had walked along the Mediterranean coast, and he was on the eastern stage of France.

In an interview for Le Dauphiné Libéré, during a visit to Grenoble, Henri explained the value of his trip: “Taking a year to carry out this project was a dream for a long time. Similar educational problem: in August 2022, a Senate report warned of the current state of French religious heritage. The cathedrals are its emblem, and I told myself that I had to discover them all. I have always loved walking and associating it with cathedrals is a kind of pilgrimage”.

This odyssey ends up taking him to Annecy, where he comes face to face with the aggressor, near the town’s lake. “On the way to the cathedrals, the path of blood crossed my path. I felt moved inside, I considered that I was not there by chance. For me, it was impossible to just sit there and do nothing,” Henri told CNews.

“There are a lot of people sending me positive messages. I think a lot of the victims, I hope they will come out well. Calling myself a national hero is a bit absurd, I acted as any French person should. If we all did that, we’d have heroes around every corner.” he noted in the interview.

Regarding the very moment of the attack, he explains: “Everything was very animal. At one point, the assailant stabbed me several times. I was afraid for my life, but especially for that of others. When the stress subsided, I realized that what I had done could have been much more dangerous.

This Friday, during a visit by Emmanuel Macron to the parents of the victims of the Annecy attack, the French president summons Henri to salute him as a hero and thank him for his bravery.

When the young man had to answer, he made a rather special request: “I want to ask you something. Right now I’m touring the cathedrals of France, and it would be an honor for me to attend the inauguration of Notre-Dame de Paris.” The president assured him that he will be invited: “It’s a commitment, and I will take care of it personally.”

SO, the pilgrimage of this church lover continues : will go to Burgundy, passing through the department of Jura and in order to reach Alsace, and more precisely, the city of Strasbourg. And in a few months, when the most emblematic of French cathedrals reopens, Henri will be there.