Authorities in northern France are investigating an incident in Caen late Wednesday in which at least two people were killed and 10 were injured after a car was driven into a crowd near a train station. File photo by Justin Lane/EPA-EFE
Aug. 27 (UPI) — At least two people were killed and 10 were injured, after a car was driven into a crowd near a train station in Normandy in northern France.
Seven of the injured were in a critical condition in the hospital after the vehicle allegedlly srruck the group of people in the city of Caen late Wednesday evening on purpose, following an altercation, local authoritiies said.
Calvados department prefect David Clavière said the car “deliberately drove into pedestrians in the street opposite the train station.”
A fight had broken out between two groups of men immediately prior to the incident, according to witnesses.
A major emergency response was mounted across the wider Normandy region, leading to the arrest of a 26-year-old Russian-born male suspect in Ouistreham, a port on the Normandy coast.
The deputy prosecutor and police said terrorism had, for now, been ruled out.
“For the moment, we are not dealing with a terrorist motive, but the investigation is only just beginning,” said the city’s deputy mayor with responsibility for security, Bruno Coutanceau.
The incident came a month after a car attack on a Pride parade in Berlin that killed at least one person and injured many more and nine months after 10 people were injured, two critically, when a man purposely drove into pedestrians and cyclists on the French holiday island of Oléron.