According to several media reports, two individuals are in critical conditions and some others have been injured when a man, who is reportedly a Muslim, crashed a car into a crowd of people on Ile d’Olero, a French island.
On arrest, the driver is quoted saying, Allahu Akbar, the public prosecutor of the city of La Rochelle, Arnaud Laraize, to French publication Le Figaro.
France: Several Injured After Car Rams Into Crowd on Île d’Oléron
At the moment of his arrest, the man screamed Allah Akbar. Nevertheless, the motive remains unproven and the investigation will have to ascertain them,” the public prosecutor quoted.
The public prosecutor too has disclosed that the anti-terrorism prosecutors office had not been engaged in case as yet.
The suspect is a 35-year-old man living in a small fishing village, La Cotinière (Charente-Maritime), that is 4 kilometres distant of the commune in Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron.
The suspect allegedly attempted to light some gas cylinders in his car and burn it, but Mr Laraize, the public prosecutor, has claimed that this fact has not been confirmed yet.
The suspect, according to the mayor of the island, Le Parisien, a French news agency, is known to have committed many sins, especially because of his constant use of drugs and alcohol.
The outlet also disclosed that investigators are attempting to establish whether the person was mentally ill. Majority of the victims who were injured during the attack were pedestrians and cyclists. It occurred on Wednesday at approximately 8.45 am in local time.
The victims were flown to the University Hospital of Poitiers. According to local media, a psychological support team was established in the island to assist the people who were affected by the attack.
In a posting on X, France interior minister Laurent Nunez told him: “This morning a driver hit some pedestrians and bicycle users on his path in Saint Pierre d d Oleron and Dolus d d Oleron. There are two victims in the state of absolute emergency and 3 other individuals are injured. The gendarmes took the suspect in custody. There has been an investigation that has been opened.
He also reported that he was going to the scene at the request of the French Prime Minister.
Other cases of such attacks in France
This has not been the initial incidence of such an attack in France. This is not the first time that there have been a series of cases of vehicles being rammed on individuals with the aim of inflicting injuries or loss of lives.
August 2025: In August this year, a man took his car and drove into the crowd of people standing outside a bar in the town of Evreux. There was one fatality in the incident with the other five injured.
April 2020: Two police officials were seriously injured in Colombes when a driver drove his car into them. According to the French anti-terrorism prosecuteur, the driver had sworn an oath of loyalty to the Islamic state.
June, 2017: In Paris, Champs-Elysée, an armed man caused an accident by ramming his own vehicle into a police convoy.
December 2014: In a rather similar scenario to the one on Wednesday, a driver supposedly screamed Allahu Akbar and hit a group of people with his car in Dijon to injure 13 people.
