Nearly a dozen people were injured Wednesday when a motorist plowed into pedestrians and cyclists on the French island of Oleron, just off the Atlantic coast.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the driver hit five people within 35 minutes.
According to CNN affiliate BFMTV, 10 passersby were injured. The interior minister added that at least two people, including a 22-year-old woman, were seriously injured.
CNN affiliate BFMTV reported Wednesday, citing Saint-Pierre-d’Orron Mayor Christophe Soule, that police quickly arrived at the scene and arrested the driver “with great difficulty.”
BFMTV added that he was taken into custody.
Authorities then began an investigation, Nunez said. According to BFMTV, the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office is also monitoring the case.
Nuñez later told reporters at the crime scene that authorities needed to examine the suspect’s phone records to determine whether the case could be developed into an anti-terrorism investigation.
“He hasn’t said much so far,” Nunez said Wednesday.
Christophe Soule, the mayor of Saint-Pierre-d-Oleron, told BFMTV that some survivors will be evacuated by helicopter to the French mainland city of Poitiers. There were no children among the injured, he added.
After hitting several people, the driver got out of the car and tried to set it on fire, BFMTV said. The suspect shouted “Allah Akbar” during the attack, the local prosecutor’s office said, adding that a clear motive had not yet been determined.
The driver, a white French man in his 30s, is known to local police for common law offenses including theft and drunk driving, BFMTV added. BFMTV added that French intelligence had not been informed.
He has family on Île d’Oleron, where he lives, and began his journey by car on Wednesday, Soule said.
In the aftermath, his car lay on the roadside with “the front end ripped off,” Suhr recalled.
“It all happened very quickly,” the mayor told reporters. “I don’t associate with him, but he’s a well-known figure, especially in law enforcement circles,” he added.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
