Terrace hit by a car in Paris: “the act could be intentional”

Photo: Ian Langsdon Agence France-Presse French police officers next to a damaged vehicle near the “Le Ramus” bar, in Paris, July 17, 2024

Lucie Hoarau – Agence France-Presse, Murielle Kasprzak – Agence France-Presse, Julia Pavesi – Agence France-Presse in Paris

Published at 11:41 a.m.

• Europe

The driver who drove into the terrace of a café-restaurant in Paris on Wednesday evening, killing one person and injuring six people, may have done so deliberately, French judicial authorities indicated.< /p>

Arrested and taken into police custody on Wednesday evening, the driver, aged 24, was taken to a psychiatric ward.

Around 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. in Quebec) on Wednesday, nine days before the start of the Paris Olympic Games, this young man drove his car onto the terrace of the bar-restaurant Le Ramus, in a peaceful avenue in the east of the French capital, not far from the famous Père-Lachaise cemetery.

One person was killed and six were injured, three of whom were taken to hospital in absolute emergency, a police source and the prosecution announced Wednesday evening.

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Initially opened for involuntary homicide, unintentional injury by driver and endangerment, the investigation was reclassified as murder and attempted assassination, the prosecution said on Thursday.

“This reclassification of the facts was carried out with regard to the statements of the accused during his custody, suggesting that the act could be intentional”, underlined the public prosecutor.< /p>

“The suspect's custody was lifted at 10:40 a.m. for treatment at the I3P”, the psychiatric infirmary of the Police Prefecture, he added.

The suspect was alone on board, said the prosecution. Toxicological analyzes to determine whether he had consumed alcohol and/or drugs are underway, he said.

Shortly after the events, the hypothesis of a “road accident” was “favored at this stage”, a police source told AFP.

Bouquets of roses

The waiter from another establishment located nearby, in this avenue in the 20th arrondissement of the capital, saw the car passing “at full speed” and heard a loud noise. The car “turned the forbidden direction and rushed”, he told AFP, requesting anonymity.

“All the injured are customers”, “people on the terrace, because the weather is nice today”, the mayor of the 20th arrondissement, Eric Pliez, reacted to the press on Wednesday evening, visibly moved.

A psychological unit has been set up at the district town hall, in which the 23 people who witnessed the scene, who are shocked, will be “received as a priority”, one of his deputies Vincent had indicated. Goulin. “We are very moved, it upsets us all.”

“This neighborhood is safe and calming, which amplifies the shock of local residents and merchants faced with the accident,” the mayor stressed to AFP on Thursday.

A local resident, Brigitte, 70, explained that “at Ramus, they always have a crazy crowd, because it’s here that families meet up after a funeral at Père Lachaise. »

“My heart hurts for the team,” she confided.

An AFP journalist noted on Thursday that there was no longer any construction tape in front of Le Ramus, but that a large impact was still visible on one of the glass doors at the entrance from the bar.

Three bouquets of roses were placed on the ground in front of the establishment.