Driver purposely steers into French pizzeria, killing girl
SEPT-SORTS, France — A man believed to be under the influence of drugs — and possibly suicidal — deliberately rammed his car into a pizzeria east of Paris on Monday night, killing an adolescent girl and injuring her younger brother and 12 others, authorities said.
The driver was immediately arrested in what was the latest of several attacks in France and elsewhere using a vehicle as a weapon. The local prosecutor said the man’s actions in the dinnertime attack in the town of Sept-Sorts were clearly deliberate, but not terrorism-related.
The girl and her brother were among restaurant patrons eating on the outdoor terrace of Pizzeria Cesena when a man in a BMW accelerated toward them, an official with the national gendarme service told The Associated Press. Some officials said the girl was 13, while the prosecutor said she was 12.
The girl died immediately, and her brother’s injuries were considered life-threatening, according to a gendarme official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name.