A man in his twenties very seriously injured a septuagenarian on Wednesday morning June 22 in Nice, after hitting him near the Promenade des Anglais with a van he had just stolen. we learned from judicial sources.
Read alsoJean-Christophe Buisson: “A thief who wishes you well”
The facts took place around 8:00 a.m., quai des Etats-Unis, an axis which extends the Promenade des Anglais, on the seafront, the prosecution told AFP, confirming the initial information from Nice-Matin.
The victim, born in 1946, was seriously injured in the leg.
She was taken to hospital in critical condition.
His vital prognosis is engaged.
Thief known to authorities
"
The stolen van was on the sidewalk for a technical intervention to clean the sanitary facilities on the beach
", explained the prosecution to AFP: "
The man took advantage of the absence of its occupants to steal it before hitting two hundred meters further the victim with full force
".
The thief was arrested almost immediately by the police and taken into custody.
At the beginning of the afternoon he still could not be heard, because of his state of alcoholism.
The alleged perpetrator, a man in his twenties presenting himself as Somali, had entered French territory in January 2021. His asylum request had been rejected on June 7, a decision against which he had lodged a appeal.
He was known to the judicial authorities for the commission of several common law offences.
The investigation, entrusted to the departmental security and open to the head of attempted voluntary homicide, must above all determine the intentional or unintentional nature of the shock with the victim.
Read alsoHow do diamond thieves dispose of their loot after a robbery?
The national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office has been informed but has not claimed jurisdiction at this stage, said the Nice prosecutor's office.
On July 14, 2016, a truck driven by a 31-year-old Tunisian living in Nice killed 86 people and injured more than 400 others on the Promenade des Anglais.