French Christmas market attacker was drunk, police say
A driver who rammed his car into a Christmas market in a western city in France killing one person and injuring nine others was under the influence of alcohol, a police source said Friday.
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The 37 year-old man had a blood alcohol reading of 0.18 in his system during the attack on Monday in Nantes, a city in western France. This amount represents nearly four times the French legal limit of 0.05.
On Friday, the man was still in hospital under police surveillance. He was seriously wounded, having stabbed himself several times after driving his van into the crowd.
A 25 year-old man who was hit by the car during the assault died of his wounds Tuesday.
The attack was the third violent incident, including one linked to radical Islam, in a few days in France prompting the government to boost security.
On 20 December, a man had attacked three policemen with a knife while yelling “Allahu Akbar” (“Gos is Greatest”) in the central town of Joue-les-Tours. The 20-year-old man was shot down by the police.
Then on Sunday evening, a driver ploughed into pedestrians in Dijon in the east, injuring 13 people and also shouting the same Islamic phrase. The 40-year-old had a long history of mental illness and no ties to jihadist groups, the government said.
Nantes prosecutor Brigitte Lamy said a notebook found in the vehicle after the assault contained “confused” remarks in which the man expressed his “hatred of society” and mentioned “a risk of being killed by the secret services”.
He also claimed that “his family was disparaging him on the internet,” she said.
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