BORDEAUX, France - The French government faced accusations from the right on Tuesday of failing to ensure public security after a video of a woman and her granddaughter being attacked on their doorstep prompted shock in France.
The grandmother, aged 73, and her granddaughter, 7, were attacked on Monday in the upscale district of Chartrons in the western city of Bordeaux.
Video posted on social media, recorded by a security camera, showed the two coming to their doorstep when a lurking man pounces and forces them to the ground in the daytime assault.
He appears to attempt to abduct the girl but then moves away as a dog appears and starts to bark.
A suspect, who has multiple past convictions, was arrested around one hour afterwards, said Bordeaux prosecutor Frederique Porterie.
The suspect, a 29-year-old French national, who denies wrongdoing, has been detained for questioning.
Another police source said the suspect had been undergoing psychiatric treatment, and police used an electroshock weapon during his arrest due to his agitated state.
The victims were treated for cuts and bruises, the prosecutor said.
Government spokesperson Olivier Veran said the attack 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.
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 the migratory chaos, is becoming endemic. How many videos like this are needed before the authorities react?" tweeted far-right National Rally (RN) figurehead Marine Le Pen.
"What a horror. Bordeaux today. This is what they have done to our country. The French, wake up," said the far-right pundit turned politician Eric Zemmour.
The leader of the right-wing Republicans Eric Ciotti said "This major repeat offender should be in prison!"
But the family of those attacked issued a statement denouncing the "political exploitation" of the incident.
The family 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", lawyer Nadege Pain said in a statement to AFP.