Grandmother and child attacked in France on their doorstep in botched abduction

A woman and her granddaughter were attacked in broad daylight in Bordeaux, France. Photo / Twitter

Emmanuel Macron’s government faced Opposition accusations of failing to stem rising crime after a video of a woman and her granddaughter being attacked on their doorstep in Bordeaux prompted shock across France.

On Monday, the grandmother, 73, and her granddaughter, 7, were attacked in broad daylight in the affluent district of Chartrons in the western city famed for its vineyards.

Security camera footage posted on social media that went viral shows the pair standing at a doorstep, which police say was the home of the woman’s son. Just as they try to shut the front door, a lurking man pounces, violently grabs both victims and hurls them to the ground.

He appears to attempt to abduct the girl but runs away after a dog appears and starts to bark.

A suspect, who has 15 previous convictions, was arrested shortly afterwards, said Frederique Porterie, Bordeaux’s state prosecutor. The suspect, a 29-year-old French citizen who has schizophrenia and had stopped taking his medication, was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Bordeaux on Tuesday.

The victims were treated for cuts and bruises, Ms Porterie said.

‘Absolutely unbearable’

Pierre Hurmic, the Green mayor of Bordeaux, said he was “extremely shocked” by the attack.

Olivier Veran, a government spokesman, said it showed “gratuitous violence” and “the need for security for the French”, adding that the government had increased “more than ever the justice budget” as well as law enforcement personnel.

Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister, said the culprit must be “severely punished” while Eric Dupont-Moretti, the justice minister, called the images “absolutely unbearable”.

But the government also faced criticism from the Right, with the attack coming after a mass stabbing at a children’s playground in the southeastern city of Annecy this month, carried out by a Syrian refugee.

“These attacks are daily and the insecurity, aggravated by migratory chaos, is becoming endemic. How many videos like this are needed before the authorities react?” said Marine Le Pen, leader of the hard-Right National Rally party.

“What a horror. Bordeaux today. This is what they have done to our country. The French, wake up,” said Eric Zemmour, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam polemicist turned politician.

Eric Ciotti, the leader of the Right-wing Opposition Republicans party, chimed in: “This major repeat offender should be in prison!”

The Bordeaux arm of police union Alliance denounced a “rise in acts of violence and crime of 12 per cent since the end of the Covid lockdown” in the city, which is known for its quiet pace of life.

“All of Bordeaux’s security forces are snowed under,” it said.

But the family of those attacked issued a statement denouncing the “political exploitation” of the incident.

It also criticised “the media use of the images without their explicit consent and without the slightest respect for the identity of the victims or their private life”, said lawyer Nadege Pain.

Eric Cocquerel, a high-profile politician in the Left-wing France Unbowed party, said: “I think that seeking to exploit such crime stories is always extremely complicated.”