Jean Guillot is accused of causing carnage by ploughing into 10 people on a holiday island (Picture: Facebook)

This is the first picture of a suspected driver who mowed into a 22-year-old far-right activist and nine other people.

Jean Guillot,35,is accused of ‘attempted murder’ following a 35-minute rampage on Oléron,off France’s western Atlantic coast.

Emma Vallain,a parliamentary aide and a youth activist with the National Rally previously led by Marine Le Pen,is thought to be among the worst injured after pedestrians and cyclists were crushed a driver in the southwest of France.

Another victim is also in a critical condition,while eight others were seriously wounded in the incident on the tourist island of Ile d’Oleron,off the city of La Rochelle,with the first alarm being sounded around 9am today.

Guillot lived alone in a mobile home in La Cotinière,a village close to where the ‘car attack’ took place. He had convictions for ‘theft,violence,property damage,traffic offences,and drug use,’ said the investigating source.

Emma Vallain,22,was critically injured after a driver rammed a car into pedestrians in southwest France (Picture: Reuters/France 3 TV)

Jean Guillot is accused of causing carnage by ploughing into 10 people on a holiday island (Picture: Facebook)

https://www.facebook.com/guillot.jean

Ms Vallain works for Pascal Markowsky,72,a veteran MP,who said: ‘Emma was jogging on a quiet road,a few hundred meters from the beach.

‘She lost consciousness immediately but was later able to speak – she was able to say her name,which for us is the best sign. I hope everything will turn out well for her.

‘She is undoubtedly one of the most affected by this event,and we are eagerly awaiting,I hope,good news.’

Isabelle Romain,an eyewitness,said she saw a woman ‘lying on her stomach,who was no longer moving and who was in an unnatural position,’ adding that she thought the victim ‘was dead.’

A 35-year-old man,who has not been named,was arrested and taken to custody,and police have opened an investigation into what happened.

The incident is currently not being treated as terrorism,but prosecutors are treating it as attempted murder.

The incident happened on the tourist French island of Ile d’Oleron,off the Atlantic coast

When he was arrested,he cried ‘God is the greatest’ in Arabic,according to the magistrate,an expression that is often used by Islamist extremists.

But Laraize warned that the suspect also had ‘psychiatric issues’,and was known to consume a lot of drugs and alcohol. 

He added that the man was known for minor offences such as theft,but added that he was not on a list of people considered a threat to national security.

A motive was not immediately clear.

French interior minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed the incident on X: ‘This morning,a motorist struck several pedestrians and cyclists on his route in Saint Pierre d´Oléron and Dolus d’Oléron.’

He said two victims are in ‘absolute emergency’ and three more are injured.

‘At the request of the prime minister,I am heading to the scene,’ Nuñez added.

Dolus-d’Oléron mayor Thibault Brechkoff said in a post on Facebook that several deliberate collisions occurred in the two towns and ‘affected’ nine people.

For the time being, the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has ‘not yet taken up the case,’ according to AFP.

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