2014 Nantes attack

Vehicle ramming attack in Nantes, France 2014 Nantes attack File:Marché de Noël de Nantes 2015.jpg 250px The Place Royale Christmas market one year after the attack File:Loire-Atlantique-Position.svg 250px Location of Loire-Atlantique within France Place Royale (Nantes) fr Place Royale (Nantes) Place Royale, Nantes, France Civilians 22 December 2014 Vehicular assault 1 10 (including the suspect) Virgile Porcher Sébastien Sarron White van Suspected mental unbalance On 22 December 2014, Sébastien Sarron ran over ten pedestrians in his van at the Christmas market of the French city of Nantes, before attempting suicide by stabbing himself. Ten people, including the suspect, suffered non-fatal injuries. One man, Virgile Porcher, was pronounced dead the following day.fr Le chauffard du marché de Noël de Nantes s'est suicidé en prison, Le Parisien, 13 April 2016. The attack came a day after a similar automotive attack on pedestrians in Dijon, as well as two days after a stabbing attack inside a police station in Joué-lès-Tours. Although the three attacks were treated as unrelated, the Government of France deployed 300 soldiers onto the nation's streets to heighten security afterwards.France to deploy soldiers after spate of attacks https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30586798 26 December 2014 BBC News 23 December 2014Chow Jason French Leaders Seek to Reassure Public After Attacks https://www.wsj.com/articles/french-leaders-seek-to-reassure-public-after-attacks-1419352694 7 February 2017 Wall Street Journal 23 December 2014 In 2016, the Financial Times described this attack, the 21 December 2014 Dijon attack,Copycat attack in second French city – DW – 12/22/2014 https://www.dw.com/en/several-injured-in-christmas-market-attack-in-france/a-18147294 2025-09-06 dw.com en and the 20 December 2014 Tours police station stabbing as "the first ISIS-linked attacks" in France.Jones Sam France emerges as main focus for terrorists Financial Times 15 July 2016 1811254498 Suspect French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that the attacker in Nantes was "unbalanced". There were initial reports that the attacker had shouted Allahu Akbar ("God is Great"), however, police stated that a notebook in his van contained "incoherent suicidal phrases",Samuel Henry Man rams van into Christmas market in western France https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11309311/Man-rams-van-into-Christmas-market-in-western-France.html 26 December 2014 The Daily Telegraph 22 December 2014 and his fear of being murdered by the secret services. A test found 1.80 g of alcohol per litre of blood, four times the maximum legal rate.fr http://www.sudouest.fr/2015/01/14/drame-de-nantes-le-chauffard-charentais-maritime-ecroue-a-la-maison-d-arret-1796714-1531.php Drame de Nantes : le chauffard charentais-maritime écroué à la maison d'arrêt Nantes tragedy: the Charente-Maritime driver taken to prison Sud Ouest 14 January 20152018 Protecting public spaces against vehicular terrorist attacks https://www.ejournals.eu/pliki/art/11080/ The Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University College 2024-03-12 The driver was Sébastien Sarron (38), a farmer from Berneuil near Saintes, Charente-Maritime.fr Camionnette folle à Nantes. Il fauche 10 personnes au marché de Noël, 'Ouest France', 23 December 2014. After tending his wounds, he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital on 31 December. In January 2015 he was transferred to prison. He was described as a loner, an alcoholic and paranoiac, but was declared by a psychiatrist as responsible enough to be tried. He hanged himself in his isolation cell at the Nantes-Carquefou Nantes prison fr Centre pénitentiaire de Nantes prison on the early morning of 13 April 2016.fr Nantes: L'homme qui avait foncé sur la foule lors du marché de Noël s'est suicidé en prison, F.B., 20 minutes, 13 April 2016. Motivation The Financial Times described in a July 2016 piece this attack, the 21 December 2014 Dijon attack, and the 20 December 2014 Tours police station stabbing as "the first ISIS-linked attacks" in France. According to The Globe and Mail, the attack was "apparently inspired by a video" circulated by ISIL calling on French Muslims to attack non-Muslims using vehicles.Martin Patrick History of lone-wolf vehicle attacks suggests risk of emulation is very rea https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/history-of-lone-wolf-vehicle-attacks-suggests-risk-of-emulation-is-very-real/article30933070/ 15 July 2016 The Globe and Mail 15 July 2016 According to David C. Rapoport of the University of California, Los Angeles, these three attacks can be understood in the context of the rise of the Islamic State in Syria. "In September 2014, after the U.S. organized its airstrikes, the Islamic State’s chief spokesman called on Muslims in Western countries to find an infidel and ‘smash his head with a rock’, poison him, run him over with a car or ‘destroy his crops’. Two months later a video released in French contained virtually the same message, and a series of strange 'lone wolf' attacks followed on three consecutive days, the perpetrators declaring 'God is Great' in Arabic. Three policemen were stabbed in Joué-lès-Tours, and vehicles were used to run over eleven pedestrians in Dijon and ten in Nantes."Rapoport David Why Has The Islamic State Changed its Strategy and Mounted the Paris-Brussels Attacks? Perspectives on Terrorism; Terrorism Research Initiative; University of Leiden 2016 10 2 http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/498/html 18 October 2017 18 June 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20170618154116/http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/498/html usurped Reaction section February 2024 Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet announced an investigation into the Nantes attack, saying "I wouldn't say it was a terrorist attack. I would call it a deliberate act". François Hollande, the President of France, ordered an emergency cabinet meeting as a result of the attack in Nantes. Manuel Valls, the Prime Minister of France, aimed to reassure the French public that their concerns over the incidents would be listened to by the government. References Law France Category:2014 murders in France Category:2014 road incidents in Europe Category:2010s road incidents in France Category:Attacks in Europe in 2014 Category:December 2014 crimes in Europe Category:December 2014 in France Category:Marketplace attacks in France Category:Murders by motor vehicle Category:History of Nantes Category:Vehicle-ramming attacks in France Category:2010s vehicle-ramming attacks Category:Attacks in France in the 2010s