A driver rammed into pedestrians and cyclists on France’s Oleron island off its Atlantic coast on Wednesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said, and at least nine people were injured before he was arrested, according to local officials.
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The 35-year-old suspect shouted “Allahu akbar” [Arabic for God is Greatest] when arrested by police, the local prosecutor, Arnaud Laraize, told Sud Ouest newspaper.
French media said the motive for the attack remained unclear and that the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office was not in charge of the inquiry at this stage. The prosecutor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.
At least nine people were injured when the suspect’s car hit them in various areas of Oleron island, the mayor of Dolus-d’Oleron, Thibault Brechkoff, told BFM TV. Nunez said two of the injured were in intensive care – some French media later said that was the case for four of them.
Le Parisien newspaper said investigators were looking into the possibility that the suspect might be mentally disturbed.
The man was previously known to police for petty crime including driving while drunk, as well as drug-related offences, local newspaper Charente Libre and other French media reported, citing the mayor of Saint-Pierre d’Oleron, Christophe Sueur.