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A Car Has Rammed Into Two Bus Stops In Marseille, France

by Lani Seelinger
VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images

News broke on Monday morning that a car had crashed into two bus stops in Marseille, France. While the details of the incident are still very much unconfirmed, police are reporting that at least one person has been killed and one more injured. Police have not yet been able to determine the motive behind the crash, or even if there was one; the chance still remains that it was accidental. Nevertheless, the driver of the car has been arrested.

This comes at a tense moment, as Barcelona suffered a horrific terrorist attack last week when a driver drove a car through a crowded pedestrian area. There was another similar attack in Cambrils, a city near Barcelona, and another explosive went off 100 miles to the southwest of Barcelona, claiming the life of one victim.

The city of Turku in western Finland then found itself shaken on Friday evening, when a man went on a stabbing rampage in a central market. While the motives of the Turku attack, which killed two and injured eight, were originally undetermined, police have now investigating it as terrorism.

This latest incident in Marseilles is being taken extremely seriously, with police blocking off the whole area and advising people not go into the Old Port area of the city, where police arrested the suspect.

The suspected driver is a 35 year-old man, now in police custody. Reports say that he drove a white van into a bus stop in a northern district of the city, and then crashed the same van into another bus stop a few miles away. Whereas the first crash had injured a man waiting at the stop, the second collision killed one woman. The Guardian reports that the police are already familiar with the suspect, because of "acts of minor delinquency."

With two victims and the driver already in custody, this latest incident doesn't yet rise to the level of the Nice terrorist attack on Bastille Day last year, or even the Barcelona attack. However, it's understandable that the public would be on high alert, especially as police have yet to figure out anything about the driver's motive. Terrorist attacks using cars have become more frequent in Europe, most notably in France and in the U.K., but also in Germany, Sweden, and now Spain.

The Old Port area of Marseilles, which police have warned people to avoid at the moment, is one of the city's most heavily frequented tourist spots. People go there for its fish market, its numerous historical landmarks, and its seaside vibe. As police continue their investigation, however, they've asked people to stay out of this popular section of France's second-largest city. Until everything has been figured out, it will undoubtedly be a tense time in Marseilles.