Pictured: 'Suicidal' driver led from scene by police after he 'deliberately' ploughed into pizza restaurant killing girl
Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
This is the first image of a 'suicidal' driver who 'deliberately' ploughed into a pizza restaurant killing a schoolgirl in France.
The 32-year-old suspect was detained by officers in Sept-Sorts, a village near Paris, after the horrific car rampage on Monday evening.
Police said the man pulled up near Pizzeria Cesena, which was full of families enjoying the summer holidays, before accelerating into the restaurant at speed.
A girl aged around 12-years-old was killed and a three-year-old boy remains critically injured.
At least 12 others were also injured.
Pictures from the pizzeria show chaotic scenes, with the grey BMW buried inside the front of the restaurant - and chairs and tables upturned and metal supports bent out of shape.
Anti-terror offices swarmed the scene following the crash but police and prosecutors later ruled out terrorism as a motive.
Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now
(Image: @alijeancorakci/Twitter)
(Image: @HoolaChoup/Twitter)
The man was said to almost certainly be on drugs and had attempted to take his own life on Sunday.
A witness told BFMTV: “A car drove into the terrace and crashed into the bar.
"The driver tried to reverse but someone stopped them. The gendarmes arrived quickly.
"There were around 20 people in the restaurant."
Enquiries at the scene suggested that that the motorist ‘had made no effort whatsoever to brake,’ said the source.
The horrific incident took place in the district of Sept-Sorts, which is around 40 miles east of the French capital and not far from Disneyland Paris.
Earlier reports claimed the girl who died was eight years old, but Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet later said she was around 12-years-old.
The 32-year-old male driver of the BMW has been arrested , the BBC reports.
(Image: Google Maps)
Local media had said the the driver who had no previous criminal record, had told police officers he had wanted to kill himself and had weapons in the car.
Mr Brandet said the incident happened just after 8pm ‘and seemed to be a deliberate attack’ by a 32-year-old man ‘who was not known to the security or justice services.’
According to an initial investigation, what the man said during the incident "make it possible to discard (it was a) terrorist attack".
He had already tried to "end his days without success" on Sunday and "he would have decided to do it again," a judicial source told French publication LCI.fr .
The Frenchman also admitted to police that he was a manic depressive
Early questioning and the checking of documents established that ‘the individual was psychologically unstable’ and had ‘tried to commit suicide last week’.
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: REUTERS)
The incident was not being treated as a terror attack, local media said.
The incident follows similar terrorist attacks by jihadi killers pledging allegiance to Islamic State.
Early reports from the scene tonight suggested that the male driver "pulled up close to the restaurant" in a BMW car, and then "deliberately targeted it".
"There were quite a lot of people on the terrace,’ said a source close to the case.
"An eight year old girl was hit straight on, and died at the scene.
"At least five people are very seriously injured. The man was arrested and is now with the police. There is a gendarmerie very close by.
"Anti-terrorist officers arrived on the scene very quickly, but we don’t yet know what this is about.’
(Image: Google Maps)
Roads into the village of Sept-Sorts, which has a population of just 400, were tonight being blocked off, with residents being told to stay indoors.
"There is a full-scale alert," said one.
"Police are everywhere.’
Last week an illegal immigrant to France was shot by police five times after running down six soldiers with a hired BMW in a Paris suburb.
The terrorist suspect, identified as Hamou Bachir, a 36-year-old Algerian, was caught after initially escaping the scene of the crime at Levallois-Perret.
Bachir - who also uses the name Benlatreche – ploughed into a uniformed and heavily armed unit of the 35 Infantry Regiment as they took part in Operation Sentinel.
The security initiative was set up in 2015 following a series of atrocities in Paris carried out by Islamic State and Al-Qaeda operatives.
Bachir was lurking as two three-man patrols swapped shifts, and then he approached them slowly ‘before speeding up,’ said local mayor Patrick Balkany.
(Image: Getty)
There are 10,000 soldiers patrolling France as part of Operation Sentinel, and 4,700 police and gendarmes.
France remains under a State of Emergency following a long string of attacks, including an attempt to kill a soldier at the Eiffel Tower earlier this month.
The 19-year-old psychiatric patient is in custody after he brandished a knife and pledged allegiance to Isis.
In April, 39-year-old police officers Xavier Jugele was shot dead while on duty on the Champs Elysee just days before the French presidential election.
Isis claimed the killing by Karim Cheurfi, also 39, who was shot dead by police in a gun battle. Two other officers were injured in the attack.
In June an Algerian student shouted ‘This is for Syria’ as he tried to attack a policeman with a hammer outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
He was shot and ended up in custody in hospital.
And in March a convicted criminal with links to radical Islam shouted 'I am here to die for Allah, there will be deaths' seconds before he was shot dead during an attack at Paris Orly airport.
Ziyed Ben Belgacem, a 39-year-old career criminal, was killed after wrestling a soldier's gun from her and fleeing into a McDonald's restaurant.
It followed the shooting in February of a man outside the Louvre museum in the heart of Paris after he attempted to storm the historic art gallery.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an enquiry into today’s attack.
The assailant will be questioned at length ‘when his condition allows’, said an Interior Ministry spokesman.