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Driver attacks pedestrians in Dijon Driver attacks pedestrians in Dijon
(about 2 hours later)
A man shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he drove into groups of people in the French city of Dijon on Sunday injuring 11 people, two seriously. A lone assailant shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) rammed French pedestrians with his car in the central town of Dijon on Sunday night, injuring 11 people, in the second such attack in France in two days.
“The man, born in 1974, is apparently imbalanced and had been in a psychiatric hospital,” a source told AFP, adding “for now his motives are still unclear”. On Saturday, a Muslim convert from Burundi tried to stab a policeman at a police station in a town near Tours in central France. He was shot dead during a tussle with police who attempted to disarm him after he too shouted “Allahu Akbar” while brandishing his knife. Three police officers were injured.
The attack came the day after a French convert to Islam was shot dead after attacking three police officers with a knife while also reportedly exclaiming “Allahu Akbar” (meaning “God is greatest”) in the central town of Joué-lès-Tours. The two incidents raised concerns that the attackers may have heeded a call from violent jihadists from Islamic State who have called on individuals to take up arms around the world in revenge for coalition bombings against their militants in Iraq and Syria. But French officials cautioned that the attackers in both incidents had acted alone and appeared to be suffering from mentally illness.
The driver in Dijon was arrested by police after targeting passersby at five different places in the city on Sunday evening, a police source said. The attacker in Dijon, who shouted to passers by that he was acting on behalf of “the children of Palestine,” was described by police as a 40-year-old who had been receiving psychiatric treatment until the middle of last month. He was arrested after driving his Renault Clio into five separate groups of people during a half-hour period, injuring 11 people including two seriously.
“Nine people were lightly injured and two others seriously but their lives do not appear to be in danger,” the source added. After the attack, the Socialist party defence spokesman, Eduardo Rihan Cypel, said that there was no need to panic.
Witnesses told police that the driver shouted “Allahu Akbar” and “that he was acting for the children of Palestine,” a source close to the investigation said. A spokesman for the centre right UMP party, Bruno Beschizza, said that “mentally ill people are in front of their [computer] screens every night, but there aren’t attacks every night.” He said the police investigations would show whether there was any connection between the two incidents.
The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, told French television station TF1 on Sunday that the man who was shot dead on Saturday after attacking a police station in Joué-lès-Tours was “very unstable”. Bernard Cazeneuve , the interior minister, said the man who attacked the police on Saturday in Joué-lès-Tours had not been known to police for anything other than delinquency. But the minister said that, in a sign of radicalisation a few days before the attack, he had posted the black Islamic State flag on his Facebook page.
The anti-terrorism branch of the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry into that attack, with the line of inquiry focusing on motivations stemming from radical Islam. The Burundian, a former rapper who had been known as Bilal since his conversion, was “very mysterious and very unstable,” said Cazeneuve. “The investigation will show what his psychological state was.”
Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, expressed his solidarity with the victims and sent condolences to their families. Police and paramilitary gendarmes were ordered to tighten security at police stations and barracks in the light of Saturday’s incident.
The incidents in France follow last week’s siege at the Lindt cafe in Sydney, Australia, by an apparently mentally unstable self-styled Muslim cleric. The hostage-taking was brought to a bloody end on Tuesday after 16 hours. Two of the hostages died, as well as the Iranian gunman who was believed to have acted alone.
France has a sizeable Muslim minority which represents more than 7% of the 66 million population.
According to authorities, more than 1,000 French nationals have been in contact with jihadist networks in Syria and Iraq.