A driver who drove into the terrace of a cafe-restaurant in Paris on Wednesday evening, killing one person and injuring six others, may have done so on purpose, French judicial officials said.
• Read more: A car crashes into a terrace in Paris: one dead, the preferred cause of the accident
The 24-year-old driver was arrested and taken into custody Wednesday evening and taken to a mental institution.
Nine days before the start of the Paris Olympics, the young man drove his car onto the terrace of Le Ramus bar-restaurant, on a quiet avenue in the east of the French capital, on a Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. From the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery.
One person was killed and six others were injured, three of whom were taken to hospital in an absolute emergency, a police source and the prosecution announced on Wednesday evening.
AFP
Initially opened as involuntary manslaughter, with the driver causing involuntary injuries and endangerment, the investigation has been reclassified as homicide and attempted murder, prosecutors said Thursday.
“This reclassification of facts was carried out in the light of statements made by the accused during his custody, and the act may have been deliberate,” the public prosecutor underlined.
“The custody of the accused was lifted at 10:40 am for treatment at the I3P”, the police prefecture’s psychiatric hospital, he added.
AFP
The prosecution said the suspect was the only person on the boat. A toxicology analysis is underway to determine whether he consumed alcohol and/or drugs, he said.
A police source told AFP that the “road accident” hypothesis was “preferred at this stage” after the events.
Bouquets of roses
An employee from another company nearby on this avenue in the capital’s 20th arrondissement saw the car going “at full speed” and heard a loud noise. The car “broke the prohibited direction and sped off,” he told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“All the injured are customers”, “people on the terrace, because the weather is good today”, 20th arrondissement mayor Eric Bliss responded to the press on Wednesday evening, moved to the scene.
A psychiatric unit has been set up at the district town hall, where “23 people who witnessed the shocking scene will be received as a priority,” indicated one of his representatives, Vincent Goulin. “We’re very emotional and it’s sad for all of us.”
“The neighborhood is safe and peaceful, which adds to the shock of local residents and traders in the face of the accident,” the mayor stressed to AFP on Thursday.
Local resident Brigitte, 70, explained, “In Ramus, they always have a mad crowd because this is where families meet after a funeral in Père Lachaise.”
“My heart aches for the team,” he said.
An AFP journalist noted on Thursday that there was no construction tape in front of Le Ramus, but a large impact was still visible on the glass doors at the bar’s entrance.
Three bouquets of roses were placed on the ground in front of the establishment.
