NANTES, France – There are no ties between two rampaging drivers who injured a total of 23 people in nearly identical attacks, French government officials said Tuesday, downplaying any links to terrorism.
But counterterrorism investigators are probing the first of three attacks in recent days – the stabbing of police officers that left the suspect dead.
“These are individually serious and worrying events. Even if there is no link between them, I understand the worry of people faced with shocking images and the sadness of the victims,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls told Europe 1 radio Tuesday.
The attacker Sunday in Dijon had been hospitalized for mental illness 157 times since 2001, said prosecutor Marie-Christine Tarrare. The man called out “God is the greatest” in Arabic to give himself the courage to continue, she said.
Similarly, the attack at the Christmas market in Nantes “seems to be that of an unbalanced mind,” said Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s interior minister.
In that incident, 10 people were injured when a van driver crashed into the crowd late Monday before stabbing himself 13 times, Valls said.
“Just because someone takes an image pervasive in society at a given moment and wants to take part in a kind of violence seen elsewhere, doesn’t mean the person is motivated by politics or religion,” said Jean-Marie Le Guen, another top official.
On Saturday, an attacker stabbed three officers in Joue-les-Tours before he was shot to death by police. The attacker’s brother was arrested in Burundi the same day, said Burundi intelligence spokesman Telesphore Bigirimana.
Bigirimana said the brothers had links to radical Islam and moved between France and Burundi.
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