PARIS (Reuters) -A Frenchman who injured several people when he rammed his car into a crowd on a holiday island in western France is suspected of “self-radicalisation” and had “explicit religious references” at home, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Thursday.
“Based on a number of factors that exist with this individual, and the fact that he actually shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’, there are religious references in his case that are quite clear and quite explicit,” Nunez told France Inter radio. “Allahu Akbar” is Arabic for “God is Greatest”.
Nunez added, however, that it was not clear at this stage if Wednesday’s attack, which injured five people on Oleron island off France’s Atlantic coast had explicitly religious motives.
Arnaud Laraize, prosecutor for the La Rochelle region, added there was no evidence of links between the suspect and Islamist militant groups, although France’s PNAT national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office was monitoring the matter.
Laraize said the man, who is in police custody, had told investigators he had recently converted to Islam.
The suspect, whose name has not been given out by authorities, is a French national who lived on the island and had a criminal record including drink driving and drug-related offences, officials have said.
Laraize said the suspect was under the influence of cannabis at the time of the incident.
Two of those injured in the attack remain in critical condition.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Dominique Vidalon and Alessandro Parodi; editing by Aidan Lewis and Mark Heinrich)
