French driver attack ‘not a terrorist act’

DIJON, France: A Frenchman who ploughed into pedestrians shouting “Allahu Akbar” had been to psychiatric hospital 157 times and had no known links to terror groups, a prosecutor said Monday, easing concerns the attack was inspired by extremism.
The incident in the eastern town of Dijon left 13 people hurt in a scene one witness described as “apocalyptic” and came a day after a man assaulted police in the central town of Joue-les-Tours with a knife, slashing one officer in the face. The driver targeted groups of passers-by at five different locations in Dijon in a rampage that lasted around half an hour, before being arrested.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who visited the town on Monday, said 13 people were injured in the rampage though none of the victims are critical.
Local prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare told reporters that the man, born in 1974, had a “long-lasting and severe psychological disorder” and had visited psychiatric hospital 157 times.
She said he told police that he ploughed into people due to a sudden “outburst of empathy for the children of Chechnya.”
A witness to his rampage, meanwhile, described an “apocalyptic scene.” “We were going home, we saw four people on the ground... who weren’t moving at all,” said the witness, who refused to be named.
“Cars stopped to give them first aid. Very quickly, firefighters and emergency medical workers arrived.”