A van hits three cyclists in Rouen and leaves one dead: what we know

Three cyclists were mowed down in the city center of Rouen on Tuesday by a driver behind the wheel of a van. A cyclist died, the other two injured. The driver fled before being arrested. The police then found weapons in his trunk.

Still many questions unanswered this Wednesday morning in Rouen after the tragic accident that occurred Tuesday in the city center. A van hit three cyclists. One of them died as a result of her injuries, the other two are injured, one slightly and the other more seriously, but her vital prognosis is not in jeopardy.

The driver of the vehicle was arrested. Weapons were found in his vehicle. The terrorist trail has so far been ruled out by investigators.

Like every morning, Chokri was getting ready to have his coffee at the bar opposite his house before going to work, when he discovered the scene of the accident.

“There was a lady on the ground with her bike next to it. There were the police, the firefighters, the SMUR… It could happen to me, to someone else… It’s shocking,” he believes.

Weapons found in the vehicle

“It could have happened to me,” is also what Mirjam tells herself. A few minutes before the accident, she was still in her apartment and was preparing to leave by bike.

“I heard a cry of shock and screams. I looked out the window and saw a cyclist on the ground, motionless with a helmet and her bike next to her. I didn’t expect it to be an accident of this magnitude. I was surprised because I didn’t see any vehicles so I wondered what could have happened,” she said.

In fact, the driver of the van fled. It was the gendarmes who arrested him in Buchy, 30 kilometers from Rouen. They found four weapons in his vehicle. The driver makes incoherent comments. According to investigators, she had expressed suicidal intentions, but “no comments with ideological or religious connotations”.