Marseille crash: one dead after car driven into bus shelters

One person has died and another injured after a van was driven into two bus shelters in Marseille.

French officials said the van’s driver, arrested after the crashes, is being treated for psychological problems. The incident is not being treating as terror-related.

Police said the vehicle mounted the pavement in the 13th arrondissement in the north of the city at about 8.15am on Monday, hitting and injuring a 29-year-old person.

About 45 minutes later, the same vehicle crashed into a second bus shelter in the 11th arrondissement, about six miles away, killing a 42-year-old woman who was waiting for the bus in front of a fast-food restaurant.

The vehicle - a Renault Master van - was then spotted in the old port area of the city, where officers stopped it and arrested the driver, a 35-year-old man known to the police for “acts of minor delinquency”.

Police advised local people and tourists to keep away from the area.

“It happened very quickly – 15-20 seconds. It had to be deliberate,” one witness who saw the vehicle hit and kill the woman told BFMTV.

David Reverdy, the deputy regional secretary of the Alliance police union in Marseille, also said the act appeared to be intentional. “The distance between the bus shelters and the distance of the route lead us to believe the driver was determined,” he said.

“However, it’s fair to ask ourselves why these two areas? There were few shops open at that time and if he (the driver) wanted to cause deaths and injuries or carnage, there are other areas in Marseille and other times. This will be for the detectives to establish in interviewing the driver to understand his motives.”

A week ago in a Paris suburb a driver rammed his vehicle into the terrace of a pizzeria, killing a 13-year-old girl and injuring several others, including the girl’s young brother.

The crash came as Spanish police continued their search for the 22-year-old driver who ploughed a van into a crowd in Barcelona on Thursday.