French investigators on Saturday found extremist propaganda material in the computer of a man who drove his car into troops guarding a mosque in southern France on New Year’s Day, but said it did not prove he had links with any terrorist groups.
“The inspection of his computer led to the discovery of jihadi propaganda images,” local prosecutor Alex Perrin told reporters.
“These are downloadable images that are a few weeks old. Not the worst type of images, but rather bellicose slogans,” he said. “It shows he had an appreciation of that, but it does not prove he had links with terrorist organizations.”
Photo: EPA
The 29-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian descent rammed his car into a group of four soldiers in a car park outside a large mosque in a suburb of Valence on Friday afternoon, the prosecutor told reporters earlier on Saturday.
He earlier said there was no evidence of him belonging to any terrorist group and it seemed he had acted alone.
“He reportedly shouted ‘Allah is great,’ which suggests some sort of religious element,” Perrin said.
“When he was apprehended, he mentioned the fact that he wanted to kill troops, because troops killed people,” the prosecutor added. “He said he wanted to be killed by troops.”
There was also no indication that the man was suffering from mental illness, the prosecutor said.
He had been unemployed for several years and was not known to police or intelligence services, the prosecutor added.
The practicing Muslim lived in a suburb of Lyon, 100km north of the town of Valence where the incident took place.
“He had come to Valence, where his family-in-law lives, for the end-of-year holiday,” the prosecutor said.
He was shot in the legs and an arm by the troops and was still hospitalized on Saturday.
A soldier and a Muslim man were also slightly injured in the incident.
French TV showed an amateur video of the soldiers surrounding the red Peugeot sedan and shouting “Get out” before shooting, with the vehicle ending up in a ditch.
France has been on high alert since Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13 last year. Soldiers are protecting sensitive places across the country, including official buildings and religious sites.
A string of similar, but unrelated “lone wolf” attacks took place at the end of 2014.
French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking during a trip to Jordan, praised the troops’ restraint in the incident
“They were totally up to the task,” he said.
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