The authorities are calling for witnesses to identify and locate the man who attacked a runner in a park, southwest of Nîmes.
A 44-year-old jogger was violently attacked on Saturday morning in a park in Vergèze, near Nîmes, in the Gard. According to information reported by the public prosecutor of Nîmes, Cécile Gensac, a man attacked this mother around 11 a.m. Coming from behind, he surprised her and struck her several times with a knife.
The victim was quickly taken care of by passers-by and then transported to hospital with a life-threatening condition. This Sunday, his condition is “stabilized”specifies the prosecutor in a press release.
The attacker, whose motive for the attack remains unknown, fled. At this stage, no evidence has yet made it possible to identify or locate him. The authorities are appealing to the population to obtain any information that could advance the investigations. The operational center of the Gard gendarmerie can be reached at 04.66.38.50.00.
An investigation for “attempted murder” was opened and entrusted to the research section of the Nîmes gendarmerie, “with the assistance of the Vauvert research brigade and the entire Gard departmental group”.
In order to reassure the inhabitants of Vergèze, the mayor of the town, Pascale Fortunat-Deschamps, has decided to maintain public lighting during the night “until the search operations are completed”. The councilor deplores a “dramatic attack but fortunately isolated”. She calls on citizens to “show restraint in [leurs] about and not to convey false information” so as not to hinder the investigations.
