Man Shouting 'God Is Great' Runs Down Pedestrians

Driver injures 11 in Dijon, France
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 21, 2014 5:10 PM CST
Man Shouting 'God Is Great' Runs Down Pedestrians
Police on the scene in Dijon, France.   (YouTube)

A driver shouting "God is great" allegedly ran over pedestrians in France today and injured 11, two of them seriously—the day after police killed a knife-wielding man who ran into a French police station shouting the same slogan, AFP reports. Authorities have arrested a 40-year-old suspect with a history of mental-health problems and minor offences going back to the 1990s. "For now his motives are still unclear," a source close to the investigation tells AFP. However, Metro reports that during the attack in Dijon, France, he also shouted "for the children of Palestine," referring to more than 500 young people who died when Israel attacked the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

A source tells Metro that he was "acting alone," but the BBC reports that two other passengers may have been the car. Of the eleven pedestrians, nine are "lightly injured" and "two others seriously but their lives do not appear to be in danger," says AFP's source. In yesterday's attack, Bertrand Nzohabonayo, a French national born in Burundi, allegedly ran into a police station in the town of Joue-les-Tours and lashed out with a knife. Police shot him dead after he seriously wounded two officers, one in the face. Several countries were already bracing for isolated attacks by ex-jihad fighters or people heeding calls to violence by ISIS. The militant group has already "singled out" France for having joined the anti-ISIS coalition fighting in Syria and Iraq, says AFP. (More Islamic militants stories.)

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