“Maybe he is hidden somewhere”: the attacker of a jogger in the Gard on the run, local residents worried

In the Vergèze park, in the Gard, gendarmes and soldiers patrol the area looking for the slightest clue, the slightest DNA trace. This is where a woman was attacked with a knife by “an unidentified individual” while she was jogging. Forty-eight hours later, a resident has not given up on walking his dog. But he admits it, “with a little apprehension nonetheless”. “And looking behind me from time to time”he adds in the video above.

Already in 2016, a jogger raped and attacked

On Saturday, this 44-year-old jogger was stabbed several times. A neighbor arrived only a few minutes after the attack. He testifies: “When I arrived, I saw a lady on the ground under a tree. We stayed with her until the police and emergency services arrived. It's true that it's not reassuring to know that he There are things like this that can happen right in front of your house.”he said. The victim, transported to hospital with a life-threatening prognosis, is now in stable condition.

His attacker fled. He is still nowhere to be found. A call for witnesses has been launched. Investigators questioned local residents, like this mother. “They just showed video surveillance images to see if my son or we had come across this person. We just saw the silhouette: a person around thirty years old with a vest, a gray hood. I'm not at ease because I don't know, maybe it's hidden somewhere”she asks herself. In the neighborhood, concern is growing. Because already in 2016, another jogger was raped and threatened in this same park.

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Today, residents are concerned. “It’s a particularly quiet place. Plus, there’s a college right next door. It’s not a place where you get attacked,” admits a lady. While a local resident notices that the highway is “really glued to the park”. “You have holes that are almost everywhere in the fence. Indeed, even when we go running, we can see from time to time people passing through these fences. It still creates insecurity. Even me who lives next door , I never let my children go there alone”he insists.

An investigation into attempted intentional homicide has been opened.