(Reuters) A Frenchman who injured several people when he rammed his car into a crowd on a holiday island in western France is suspected of “self-radicalisation” and had “explicit religious references” at home, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Thursday.
“Based on a number of factors that exist with this individual, and the fact that he actually shouted ‘Allahu Akbar,’ there are religious references in his case that are quite clear and quite explicit,” Nunez told France Inter radio. “Allahu Akbar” is Arabic for “God is greatest.”
Nunez added, however, that it was not clear at this stage if Wednesday’s attack, which injured five people on Oleron island off France’s Atlantic coast, had explicitly religious motives.
