Three dead, one person with a life-threatening condition, a driver in police custody and many local residents, witnesses to this violent scene, greatly shocked.
The toll from the accident which occurred this Monday morning in Steenbecque, in the North, is very heavy.
It was almost 9 a.m. when a car, which apparently veered off course in a bend, mowed down four pedestrians present on a sidewalk, at the exit of this small village of 1,700 inhabitants, François-Xavier Bieuville, the sub-prefect of Dunkirk, partially confirming information from La Voix du Nord.
“Three people were declared dead by the Samu”, he specifies, and another, whose “vital prognosis is compromised, but stabilized, was airlifted to the Lille hospital center”.
The driver was taken into custody.
According to his statements after the accident, he “dozed off before the impact”, indicates the sub-prefect.
The victims would be a “group of walkers”, he adds.
Heavy resources have been deployed since Monday morning by firefighters from the North, supported by those from Pas-de-Calais, including a helicopter and four ambulances.