Terror link ruled out as woman killed in French bus stop attacks
ONE person was killed and another seriously injured in Marseille yesterday when a car rammed two different bus stops in the southern French port.
The “deliberate” targeting of civilians in France’s second city instantly sparked terrorism fears just days after the Spain car attacks that killed 15, but later prosecutors said that their preferred line of inquiry was “psychiatric”.
The suspected driver, a 35-year-old man known by authorities for petty crimes and mental health problems, was arrested shortly afterwards.
BFM TV cited police sources as saying that at 9.15am a white utility vehicle, which had been stolen that morning, rammed a bus stop in the 11th arrondissement of Marseille. One man sustained serious pelvis injuries.
A few minutes later, in the 13th arrondissement, the same vehicle ploughed into another bus stop, shattering glass and crushing a 42-year old woman, who died on the spot. A witness took down the registration details and police seized the driver shortly afterwards as he arrived at Marseille’s old port. The arrest took place “calmly and without violence”, police said.
Judicial police launched an investigation, but anti-terror judges were not called in. “There is no evidence enabling [us] to qualify this as a terrorist attack,” said Xavier Tarabeux, the Marseille prosecutor. “He was found with a letter from a psychiatric clinic and we are leaning towards treating it as a mental health case.”
Police locked down Marseille’s old port while they analysed the vehicle used in the attack and searched for possible explosives.
The suspect, who is from Grenoble, in eastern France, was known to police for “theft, violence, bearing arms and ‘dining and dashing’ [leaving restaurants without paying]”.
Several European cities, including London, Berlin and Stockholm, have been targeted in a wave of attacks by Islamist radicals using vehicles to run down people. Many have been claimed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Terrorism experts have warned that the intense media coverage of the violence could spur copycat attacks by people with mental health problems and violent leanings.