Yesterday evening, Monday, a motorist drove into a crowded Christmas market in the centre of the city of Nantes (44), injuring 10 people, before stabbing himself several times in the chest.
The motorist who crashed into the crowd at the Christmas market is a man of 37 years residing in Berneuil, a small village of 800 inhabitants near Saintes (Charente-Maritime), according to the gendarmerie in La Rochelle.
The man, who may have recently lost his job, was not known to the police for psychiatric history that would explain his actions.
Shortly before 7pm, the driver of a white van registered in Charente-Maritime drove at a Hut where they were serving mulled wine to over in one of the busiest pedestrian areas of the centre of Nantes where the Christmas market is situated.
Help arrived quickly, and out of the 11 in total that were injured, five were seriously injured including the driver, who had stabbed himself 12 times to the chest. Thankfully, no children were amongst the injured, who were all taken to the University Hospital of Nantes.
It is thought that the man was suffering psychological and family difficulties, as there was a diary in the vehicle, and it is not related to similar tragedies that have happened over the last three days in Dijon and Joue-les-Tours (Indre-et-Loire).
