Car plows into French crowd – media
Six people were injured, two of whom were hospitalized, after a car lost control and hit a crowd of onlookers at an illegal street race in the port city of Bordeaux in southwest France on Friday night, according to local media.
Four people have been taken into police custody following the incident, which occurred at around 11:15pm local time, according to FranceInfo. The injured parties are understood to be aged between 17 and 26 with two people – both aged 18 – said to be seriously wounded, the France Bleu radio network reported, citing firefighters at the scene.
An investigation has been opened by the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office for “aggravated involuntary injuries.” Authorities stated that the accident occurred on the Rue du Professeur Darget in a commercial area north of Bordeaux, where a crowd had gathered to view an “unauthorized” race “on a public road.”
A video of the crash circulating on social media shows a vehicle approaching a bend at significant speed before it mounts a curb and appears to hit several bystanders. Initial investigations have determined that the incident was not a deliberate act, FranceInfo reports.
The brief clip has been widely viewed online, with one video published by a French media group having been seen more than 250,000 times since it was uploaded to Twitter on Saturday morning.
The driver, a local French male born in 1990, initially fled the scene but was “pursued by witnesses who ended up blocking him in the town of Bassens,” said the prosecutor’s office. He was arrested along with three other passengers in the vehicle, who were born in 1992, 2001 and 2003. All four remained in custody as of Saturday morning.
