Summary The attacker wanted to avenge ISIS attacks
(Web Desk) - A man in Paris was arrested after he tried to ram his car into a crowd of people in front of a mosque.
According to The Telegraph police and witnesses said that the incident occurred when a person in a 4x4 vehicle repeatedly drove around the Creteil mosque trying to find his way through the barriers placed near the building. However, when the barriers and other motorists on the path prevented the man from passing he tried to race into the nearby pedestrians but failed when the car crashed into a median and stopped. Afterwards the driver of the vehicle tried to flee on foot but was quickly arrested. No one was wounded in the attack and according to a witness during the whole incident people “did not yell, everyone remained calm.”
Creteil mosque. Courtesy:Google Images
Further investigation of the incident has shown that the driver was likely motivated by avenging attacks done by ISIS. During his statement he cited the November 2015 attack on the Bataclan nightclub in which more than 85 people died and the incident earlier this month when a heavily armed driver died in a failed suicide attack at the Champs-Elysées roundabout .Tests done by the police have shown that the man was neither under the influence of drugs nor alcohol during the attack.
The incident drew condemnation from the head of Paris police, Michel Delpuech who said that an investigation had begun to examine the causes for the attack and to verify what criminal charges could be brought against the attacker.
Abdallah Zekri, the head of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia also commented on the attack saying that the incident seemed to “justify the fears" he had expressed after the attack close to Finsbury Park Mosque in London. He said that greater vigilance was needed by mosque officials. He also urged police and other authorities to increase the protection of religious buildings.
Incidents of Islamophobia are increasing in Europe due to greater Muslim immigration from war torn countries such as Iraq or Syria and a higher number of attacks from the Islamic State. A few days ago, a British man was charged with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder after he allegedly tried driving a rented van into a crowd of Muslims leaving Finsbury Park mosque.
