SAINT-PIERRE-D’OLERON, France – A motorist “deliberately” hit five people over 35 minutes on Île d’Oléron, a quiet French island popular with summer tourists off the Atlantic coast, two of them seriously, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Wednesday.

Speaking from the scene, Nuñez said an investigation for attempted murder is underway. The case is not being treated as a terrorist investigation, he added.

One of the victims, a 22-year-old woman, suffered multiple traumas; three others had minor injuries, he said.

Officials gave varying accounts of the number of injured persons, with several pedestrians being monitored for psychological shock.

Thibault Brechkoff, the mayor of Dolus-d’Oléron, who originally said nine people were injured, said that a crisis cell was set up and the suspec

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