The island of Oléron was the scene of a new attack: a 35-year-old ran over passers-by and cyclists shouting “Allah Akbar”. Ten injured, four seriously. For France, another chapter in the long war against Islamist terrorism.
France returns to live in fear hours later yet another Islamist attack. This morning a motorist deliberately hit several pedestrians and cyclists in several places on the island of Oleronon the Atlantic coast, injuring at least ten people, four of them seriously, before being stopped by the police. The man, a 35-year-old resident of the area, allegedly shouted several times «Allah u Akbar» (Allah is great) at the time of the arrest, according to what was reported by the prosecutor of La Rochelle, Arnaud Laraize.
The attack occurred along the connecting road Dolus d’Oleron to Saint-Pierre d’Oléronin a quiet seaside area frequented by residents and tourists. The first testimonies tell of a car launched at great speed which overwhelmed anyone in its path. «He acted deliberately», he declared Laraizeconfirming the opening of an investigation for attempted murder. The suspect, already known to the police for common crimes, was not registered as a radicalized individual.
According to the gendarmerie and the Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez“about ten people are involved”. Five are said to be injured, three seriously, and are hospitalized in hospitals in the region in critical condition. The authorities maintain reservations about the exact balance sheet, which is still being updated. The island remained isolated for hours, while the area of the massacre was seized. The investigation was entrusted to Research Section (SR) of Poitiers with the support of Rochefort Brigades And La Rochelle. At the moment, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) has not yet formally taken charge of the file, but the dynamics and the suspect’s words push investigators not to exclude the jihadist lead. “The motive has not yet been confirmed”, explained Laraize, “but the elements collected require in-depth verification of any ideological matrix”.
For France, this is yet another episode that recalls the long trail of blood linked to Islamist radicalism. In recent years, the country has experienced a succession of attacks carried out by individuals or small groups who, although not formally belonging to jihadist organisations, were inspired by the propaganda of ISIS or al-Qaeda.
From the Nice massacre of 2016when a truck mowed down dozens of people on the Promenade des Anglais, until the murders of Arras, Rambouillet And Conflans-Sainte-HonorineFrance continues to be a privileged target of religious extremism. The deepest wounds, however, date back to Paris massacres of November 2015when a jihadist commando simultaneously struck the Bataclanit Stade de France and several venues in the capital. It was a night of terror he caused 130 dead and over 350 injuredthe worst attack on French soil since the Second World War. The attackers, affiliated withIsis and trained in Syria, they acted in a coordinated manner, marking the beginning of a new season of European terrorism: less organized but more widespread, capable of striking anywhere and at any time.
Since then, France has lived in a permanent state of alert, while the jihadist threat it has evolved in increasingly fragmented forms, relying on radicalized individuals within national borders.
The analysts of Ministry of the Interior have long warned that radicalization no longer develops only in traditional contexts such as prisons or extremist mosques, but also in the digital world. Telegram channels, closed forums and encrypted platforms incessantly spread hate content and propaganda videos, fueling a “domestic” radicalization that is difficult to intercept. According to official data, over 8,000 people are currently registered in France as potentially radicalized, while more than 1,000 are considered to be at high operational risk.
The new attack of Oleron confirms how fragile the country’s internal balance remains, despite years of security and intelligence reforms. After the killing of the professor Samuel Paty in 2020 and the 2023 attacks, the government strengthened theOperation Sentinelsdeploying thousands of soldiers to monitor public places and places of worship. However, as many experts point out, the “endogenous” threat – made up of lone wolves radicalized via the web or in marginal circuits – remains the most unpredictable. «Every time a man screams “Allah u Akbar” etcharms innocent civilians», declared an anti-terrorism officer quoted by Le Figaro, «la France she is forced to deal with a wound that never heals.” Waiting for the PNAT confirms the terrorist qualification of the case, the Oléron attack fits into a national context of growing tension. Minister Nuñez called for calm but also for vigilance, assuring that “no hypothesis will be ruled out”. Yet, almost ten years after the massacres of Bataclan and of Charlie Hebdothe widespread feeling is that the France you remain a prisoner of a threat that continually regenerates, changing shape but not ideology. A terrorism which doesn’t need organized cells to sow terror: a car, a knife and a scream are enough.
