Motorist 'deliberately' hit 5 people in car ramming on French Atlantic
island
[November 06, 2025]
By YOHAN BONNET
SAINT-PIERRE-D'OLERON, France (AP) — A motorist “deliberately” hit five
people over 35 minutes on Île d’Oléron, a quiet French island popular
with summer tourists off the Atlantic coast, two of them seriously,
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Wednesday.
Speaking
from the scene, Nuñez said an investigation for attempted murder is
underway. The case is not being treated as a terrorist investigation, he
added. |
Investigators work by the burned car after a motorist deliberately
rammed pedestrians and cyclists across two neighbouring towns on the Ile
d'Oleron, off the Atlantic coast, injuring people before being detained
by gendarmes, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Saint-Pierre-d'Oleron. (AP
Photo/Yohan Bonnet) |
|
One of the victims, a 22-year-old woman, suffered multiple
traumas; three others had minor injuries, he said.
Officials gave varying accounts of the number of injured
persons, with several pedestrians being monitored for
psychological shock.
Thibault Brechkoff, the mayor of Dolus-d’Oléron, who originally
said nine people were injured, said that a crisis cell was set
up and the suspect was arrested, he said.
French TV showed images of car which had allegedly been set on
fire before an arrest was made.
“We are extremely shocked," Brechkoff told BFM-TV. “All
municipal services are fully mobilized. Two helicopters are on
site transporting the gravely injured to Poitiers” on the French
mainland.
He said he contacted the mother of one of the injured victims.
“You’re never prepared to announce news like this," he said.
Christophe Sueur, the mayor of nearby Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron,
said the front of the car used by the suspect was “completely
torn off.”
He said it appeared the driver “was fully aware of what he was
doing.”
According to Sueur, the suspect was known to the police for
minor common-law offenses, specifically theft and repeated
problems linked to alcohol and drug use. He was not flagged for
radicalization.
The incidents took place along roadside areas between
Dolus-d’Oléron and Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron, with initial calls
around 9:00 a.m, local time, according to French media.
Media reports identified the suspect is a 35-year-old French
national residing in La Cotinière, a small fishing village on
the west coast of Île d’Oléron.
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