Gironde: four cyclists mowed down by a car, investigation for "attempted assassination"

Europe 1 with AFP 9:06 p.m., November 14, 2022

An investigation for "attempted murder" was opened on Monday by the Bordeaux prosecutor's office against a 38-year-old motorist, who hit a group of cyclists and left two seriously injured on Saturday on a road in Gironde.

According to the first elements, the act seems deliberate, specified the parquet floor which requested a placement in pre-trial detention, confirming information from the

newspaper .

The four cyclists rode in single file

Saturday around 3:30 p.m., four cyclists aged 60 to 70 were mowed down by a car while they were traveling "in single file" on the paved side of a departmental road in Sadirac, a town located 15 km east of east of Bordeaux, according to Dominique Paris, president of Artigues Cyclo Sport, the cycling club of the four victims.

"They didn't hear a brake, just a huge slam. The bikes and the guys were on the ground and the windshield was shattered," says Dominique Paris, present at the scene 30 minutes after the incident.

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According to him, the motorist remained on the spot, "surprisingly calm" and "hands in his pockets", before being arrested by the gendarmerie.

Two of the victims came out of the emergency room overnight from Saturday to Sunday with stitches in the calf for one and a broken collarbone for the other.

One of the cyclists on life support

One of the cyclists, aged 65, operated on the level of the cervical vertebrae and plunged into an artificial coma for 24 hours, has since been placed on respiratory assistance.

The last victim also remained hospitalized on Monday for "a fracture of the lumbar vertebrae", detailed Dominique Paris.

newspaper

quoting the investigators, the suspect is unknown to justice, unemployed but presents himself as a "senior civil servant", "victim of harassment" and "lives with his parents, most of the time recluse in his room. ".