A tragic incident unfolded in the 20th arrondissement of Paris on the evening of Wednesday, July 17, when a motorist drove into a café terrace, resulting in one fatality and several serious injuries. The event occurred at 7:30 pm, as confirmed by officials to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The public prosecutor’s office reported that the driver of the vehicle had been arrested. Despite initial reports from investigators indicating that a passenger might also have been detained, the prosecutor’s office later clarified that it was not confirmed whether there had been a passenger.
Initially, a police source noted that three of the injured were in critical condition. The prevailing theory, according to another police source, was that the incident was a traffic accident. The scene around the Le Ramus café, where the car struck, was heavily secured by police, with at least four fire trucks present.
The accident scene drew a substantial police, firefighter, and military presence, blocking access to several streets around Le Ramus. Concerned local residents gathered nearby, some of whom claimed to have seen the vehicle circling the neighborhood before the crash.
“I don’t want to be afraid in my neighborhood that people might do that on purpose,” one resident told Le Monde, anxiously watching his daughter play on her scooter. In a nearby street, investigators were interviewing around 20 witnesses, most of whom were present on the terrace at the time of the incident, while the fire department attended to them.
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