A man "deliberately" rammed his car into a group of pedestrians, injuring three Chinese students one of them seriously, near the French city of Toulouse on Friday.
Photo from video
The 28-year-old driver, who was arrested immediately afterwards in the city's Blagnac suburb, "purposefully hit three people" on a crosswalk, Toulouse prosecutor Pierre-Yves Couilleau said.
The suspect, a single man who lives with his mother in Blagnac, had previously suffered severe psychiatric problems and was released from a court-ordered hospital stay in December 2016, the prosecutor said.
"The individual arrested immediately after the event said he had been planning this act for a month," the prosecutor said later in a statement.
When asked about the possibility the man was motivated by terrorism, the prosecutor said the attack was "nothing of that order".
The driver has had about 10 previous convictions for non-terror related crimes, he said.
The victims are Chinese exchange students at the ICD-Toulouse International Business School. A 23-year-old woman was the most seriously injured, and two men aged 22 and 23 were also hurt and one of them remains in hospital, the prosecutor said.
The attack occurred in front of the Blagnac campus of the Institute for Social Research.
France's Interior Minister Gerard Collomb has praised the police's response, saying "the investigation will determine the nature of his act".
The attack came days after China asked France to "ensure the security" of its nationals, who have been regular victims of thieves.
On November 2, a group of around 40 Chinese tourists were attacked with teargas and robbed outside a three-star hotel near Paris's Orly Airport.
