Tragedy Strikes Paris Cafe Before Olympics – Intentional Act Suspected

French criminal police are investigating whether a car ramming into a cafe terrace in Paris, killing one and injuring six, was intentional. The incident comes days before the Olympic Games. The driver, arrested and undergoing psychiatric evaluation, faces charges of murder and attempted murder. France remains on high alert.

French criminal police are investigating whether a man who rammed a car into the terrace of a cafe in Olympic host city Paris did so deliberately, the city's prosecutor's office said on Thursday. One person was killed and six were injured in the incident, which occurred in northern Paris late on Wednesday, days before the start of the Olympic Games in the French capital on July 26.

The driver was arrested and on Thursday morning underwent a psychiatric examination, the prosecutor's office said. The investigation has been requalified as one into "murder and attempted murder" instead of manslaughter, it added. Police had initially suggested there was a passenger in the car who had tested positive for drugs and alcohol but the prosecutor's office said on Thursday there had been no passenger.

France is on its highest state of security alert ahead of the Paris Olympics. A soldier was stabbed and wounded by a man armed with a knife at a railway station in Paris on July 15 while French security services on Wednesday arrested a far-right sympathiser in eastern France on suspicion of plotting attacks to take place during the Olympics.

(With inputs from agencies.)