Five people injured, two in very serious condition, interior minister confirms
French interior minister Laurent Nuñez is briefing the media now from Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron.
He says he wanted to express his support for the victims and the first responders.
Summing up what we know about the incident, he says that around 8.40am local time this morning, an individual deliberately drove his car into several people in his path, some on foot, and some on bicycles.
He says that during the 35-minute incident, he hit five people, and two of them are in very serious condition, including a 22-year-old woman.
He adds there will be also “several” people affected by witnessing the scene.
He commends the first responders for arresting the suspect, who resisted arrest, and attempted to set fire to his vehicle. The suspect remains in custody, but refuses to speak to investigators. He was not known to intelligence services.
Nuñez adds representative of the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor is at scene, but only as an observer and not currently handling the investigation.
He sidesteps a question on whether the perpetrator shouted any slogans during the incident, saying it will be for the investigators to look into the motive in detail and decide whether anti-terrorism prosecutors would need to be involved.
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Updated at 09.32 EST
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Nato’s Rutte plays down fears about US troops reduction in Romania
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has insisted that “the US force posture in Europe remains larger than it has been for many years,” as he faced questions over partial US withdrawal from Romania.
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, left, shakes hands with Romanian President Nicusor Dan during a press conference at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania. Photograph: Vadim Ghirdă/AP
During his visit to Bucharest, Rutte insisted that force posture reviews and adjustments “are not unusual,” and insisted that the US commitment to defending Nato members remains in place.
“I really think we are making a little bit too much out of this [decision],” he said, adding that it was all about the US “always looking how they can make the best use of their resources they have in Europe.”
“Please don’t read too much into that,” he urged the host nation.
He also pointed to Nato’s new initiatives on the Eastern flank, including the new Eastern Sentry mission, as reasons to be reassured.
Speaking alongside Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, Rutte said that “there should be no doubt of Nato’s resolve to protect the alliance,” and to “defend every inch of allied territory.”
“If an attack would take place from whoever, be it the Russians or whoever, would attack Nato or would attack Romania particularly, it is not only Eastern Sentry which will help you; not only the Forward Land Forces which will help you – it is then the whole of Nato which will come to the rescue, with its fleet of F-35, its full naval capacity and its full land forces capacity,” he said.
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Let’s take a look at other news now.
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Christophe Sueur, mayor of Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron, told reporters that he struggled to comprehend how something like this happened in “a small town” like his on “a calm, rather peaceful island.”
But he also stressed that the incident was now contained, and this should reassure people that there was no further danger.
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Five people injured, two in very serious condition, interior minister confirms
French interior minister Laurent Nuñez is briefing the media now from Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron.
He says he wanted to express his support for the victims and the first responders.
Summing up what we know about the incident, he says that around 8.40am local time this morning, an individual deliberately drove his car into several people in his path, some on foot, and some on bicycles.
He says that during the 35-minute incident, he hit five people, and two of them are in very serious condition, including a 22-year-old woman.
He adds there will be also “several” people affected by witnessing the scene.
He commends the first responders for arresting the suspect, who resisted arrest, and attempted to set fire to his vehicle. The suspect remains in custody, but refuses to speak to investigators. He was not known to intelligence services.
Nuñez adds representative of the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor is at scene, but only as an observer and not currently handling the investigation.
He sidesteps a question on whether the perpetrator shouted any slogans during the incident, saying it will be for the investigators to look into the motive in detail and decide whether anti-terrorism prosecutors would need to be involved.
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Updated at 09.32 EST
Two people seriously injured, junior minister says
Moments ago, junior interior minister Marie-Pierre Vedrenne offered a brief update to lawmakers gathered in the National Assembly.
Responding to a question from the National Rally party, she confirmed that two victims remained in “serious condition,” including the parliamentary assistant to a RN lawmaker, as reported earlier (13:07, 14:23).
Clearly moved by the situation, she condemned what she called “a tragic and heinous act,” as she said that the perpetrator was a 35-year-old French national, who lived on the Oléron island. He was known to local authorities for “common law offences,” but not known by intelligence services, she said.
Interior minister Laurent Nuñez is now on scene as well and we should hear from him soon.
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Brussels drone sightings part of ‘hybrid threat,’ defence minister tells lawmakers, with discussion on Nato Article 4
Briefly going back to drones in Belgium, defence minister Theo Francken told lawmakers that he considered the drone sightings that disrupted air traffic in Belgium to be a part of “hybrid threat” against the country, which he stressed was “real and serious.”
“The use of drones near airports, airbases, and barracks not only poses a security risk, but also directly affects our national security and prosperity,” he said in comments reported by Nieuwsblad and VRT News.
He said the authorities believed the drone sightings to be “intentional and disruptive,” with “semi-professional, professional large drones” flying “in formation.”
He told lawmakers that the country was considering triggering Article 4 consultations within Nato, but no decisions have been made yet.
Under Article 4, “the parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
It has been only used nine time in Nato’s history, but twice this year as Poland and Estonia triggered the process in September after incidents in their airspace.
It is a separate mechanism to Nato’s better known Article 5 mutual defence clause.
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President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, has expressed her solidarity with the people affected by the Oleron incident.
She pointedly mentioned the National Rally MP Pascal Markowsky and his team, after a parliamentary aide was one of the people caught up in the incident (13:07).
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We are getting a bit more detail on the suspect in the Oleron incident.
Le Parisien newspaper cited police as saying they were looking into the possibility that the suspect might be mentally ill. BFMTV reported that he was previously known to police for petty crime including drink-driving and drug offences.
The mayor of St Pierre d’Oléron, Christophe Sueur, said the suspect was “well-known, particularly by the gendarmerie, for problem behaviour, for problems with alcohol”.
The prosecutor said the suspect “was not on the S watchlist”, an investigators’ list of radicalised individuals. The Charente Libre newspaper said he was a French national.
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Where is Île d’Oléron?
Map locating Île d’Oléron to the west of continental FranceShare
A parliamentary assistant to a local MP from the far-right National Rally party is among the injured, the party’s parliamentary spokesperson said on X.
Separately, the party’s president and potential 2027 presidential candidate, Jordan Bardella, expressed solidarity with all injured in the incident, and called for “an exemplary punishment” for the perpetrator.
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