When on Thursday, December 30 at around 9 a.m., Mayeul Barbet and his five friends leave the Donatello hotel in Djedda to get into their 4 × 4 parked in front of the establishment before joining the Dakar teams, they are far from imagining what will happen.
“We did 500 meters on a one-way lane. The atmosphere was excellent, we were going to join our racing cars two days before the start of the raid-rally, and then suddenly, boom. I jumped to the ceiling ”
, tells
Figaro
this automotive expert, who remembers then having only one priority: to save the 4 × 4 pilot Philippe Boutron, 61, seriously injured in the legs in the explosion.
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For Mayeul Barbet, who, like four other passengers in the vehicle, will come out of the explosion unscathed, there is no doubt:
"it is an attack"
, and not an accident, as the Saudi authorities have said afterwards.
While rescuing Philippe Boutron, Mayeul Barbet sees the explosive hidden in the spar of the 4 × 4. An explosive ...
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