French prosecutors said on Tuesday they had opened a terrorism investigation into an explosion that went off under a French vehicle involved in the Paris-Dakar rally in Saudi Arabia, APA reports quoting Reuters.
The blast, which seriouly injured one of the rally competitors, hit a support vehicle belonging to the French team Sodicars soon after it left its hotel in the Saudi city of Jeddah for the race route, according to accounts from the team and race organisers.
Five team members were in the vehicle at the time and one of them - driver Philippe Boutron - sustained serious leg injuries. French newspaper L'Equipe quoted a team-mate as saying the blast ripped through the floor of the vehicle, which then caught fire.
Boutron has now been med-evacced to France and is in a medically-induced coma at the Percy Military Hospital, near Paris, with his family at his bedside, the team said in a statement.
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