Jun 30, 2007
Associated Press

COLMAR, France (AP) -- A car rammed into a crowd of people leaving a village festival in eastern France early Saturday, injuring 17, police said.

Two people were in critical condition and three suffered serious injuries after the car, driven by a 24-year-old man who had been expelled from the festival shortly beforehand for misbehaving, drove into the crowd at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour (44 mph), said police officer Michel Paillisse.

Some witnesses of the early morning incident in the village of Berrwiller, near the cities of Colmar and Mulhouse, indicated the driver drove into to the crowd deliberately, Paillisse said. The driver was arrested in a nearby village after trying to escape.

The rest of the annual Humpafacht festival, which were scheduled to continue throughout the weekend, was canceled by village authorities.

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