Van rams bus stops, kills 1; terror ruled out as motive
MARSEILLE, France — A van rammed into two bus stops in the French port city of Marseille on Monday, killing one person and injuring another, but investigators ruled out terrorism as a motive, police said.
The driver of the van, arrested in a third location, was a 35-year-old from the Grenoble region in eastern France who was being treated for psychological problems, a Marseille police official said.
“The terrorist motive is completely rejected,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with French law enforcement practice.
The collisions at the bus stops about 3 miles apart came days after back-to-back van attacks in Barcelona and the Spanish resort town of Cambrils killed 15 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the double attacks.
It was the second time in a week in which a driver in France with mental health problems allegedly killed a person with a vehicle and was thought by authorities to have acted deliberately, but without terrorist intent.
The Marseille driver, who has not been identified by name, was arrested in the scenic Old Port area of France’s secondlargest city and held for questioning. BFM-TV said a witness noted the van’s license plate number and was able to give it to police, allowing them to make the arrest.
Nearly an hour passed between when the first bus stop was slammed into and the second, the police official said. She could not confirm reports in the regional newspaper La Provence that the van had been stolen.
A man was injured at the first bus stop in a working-class northern district filled with housing projects, David-Olivier Reverdy of the Alliance police union said.
The van later rammed into another bus stop in a second neighborhood, killing a woman. The driver steered onto the curb to crash into the glass-sided bus shelter then sped away, one witness said.