A mother and her three daughters were stabbed while on holiday in France because the attacker was enraged by the father grabbing his crotch.
Mohamed Boufarkouch attacked the woman and her three daughters, aged eight, 12, and 14, in the village of Garde-Colombe near Laragne-Monteglin, in south-east France, at around 10.30am on Tuesday.
He told a court he approached the father and said: ‘You shouldn’t have done that in front of my wife’, referring to the victims' father scratching the inside of his thigh over his shorts.
The victim's father said he does not remember doing such a gesture, according to The Sun, and added it was 'hard to comprehend that such a gesture could have sparked such a serious attack from a person in full mental health or devoid of any ideological intent'.
The attacker, named locally as Moroccan-born Mohamed Boufarkouch, was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in police custody.
He allegedly shouted 'Allahu Akbar', meaning 'God is great', three times while being questioned by police.
Local reports initially suggested the Boufarkouch attacked the victims because they were 'scantily dressed'.
The victims are believed to have been wearing shorts and t-shirts at the time.
It is also understood that the victims were known to the attacker and his family as they were staying next door to each other in the holiday camp.
The victims, who have not been named, were attacked while eating breakfast.
Local mayor Edmond Francou, told Le Parisien that the attacker was on holiday with his own family, including two children, from their home in Yvelines, near Paris.
At a press conference Tuesday, the prosecutor said there was no motive.
However local reports suggest the attacker had made references about the woman and children being 'too lightly dressed'.
Jean-Marc Duprat, a deputy mayor for the nearby town, said ealier this week the attacker was upset because the victims were wearing shorts and t-shirts.
French TV channel TF1 said he 'may have acted out of religious motives'.
A small folding knife with a blade measuring from 8 to 10 centimeters was found at the scene.
Boufarkouch has been known to police for at least 15 years.
He reportedly fled after the attack, leaving behind his family and his wife 'in tears'.
Garda-Colombe near Laragne-Monteglin in the Hautes Alpes near Montpellier in the south of France
The mayor suggested Boufarkouch, who lives with his family in Yvelines, west Paris, could be 'pyschologically sick' and he is set to be seen by a psychiatrist today.
The eight-year-old victim was the most severely wounded in the attack and remained in a critical condition in hospital earlier this week.
The mother reportedly suffered an injury to her sternum.
French channel TF1 claimed the mother had helped the knifeman by bringing him medication when he fell ill on Monday.
The prefect Philippe Court, prosecutor Raphael Balland and Colonel Flagella, Group Commander of the local police force, speak after a man stabbed four people, a mother and her three daughters, on Tuesday morning
The family were attacked at around 10.30am at the VVF holiday village in Lagrand in the Hautes-Alpes region
Francois Hollande's deputy chief of staff Christophe Pierrel said: 'It is time to keep calm and let the investigators do their job.'
Karine Berger, member of the French National Assembly representing Hautes-Alpes, said she was shocked by the attack on a family holiday village.
'This tragedy affects us all by the age of the victims and the circumstances,' she said.
Laragne-Monteglin is 180 kilometers 110 miles northwest of Nice, where a Tunisian man killed 84 people last week by driving through a crowd on Bastille Day.
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