French authorities are looking into a second potentially suspicious explosion at the Dakar sports car rally in Saudi Arabia last month, French radio station RMC reported on Thursday, APA reports.
According to RMC, a truck belonging to the team of Franco-Italian rally competitor Camelia Liparoti caught fire on Dec. 31 after the driver heard a "boom". A day earlier an explosion under a support vehicle at the rally seriously injured French race driver Philippe Boutron.
French anti-terrorism prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into the first explosion earlier this month. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said "there were hypotheses that it was a terrorist attack".
However, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said on Jan. 8 that an initial investigation into the first blast had not raised any criminal suspicions.
RMC said France's DGSI secret service was also interested by what happened to Liparoti's truck, a support vehicle for her X-Raid race team.
On its website, RMC showed a video of the truck destroyed by fire, saying that its gas tank was found 50 metres (164 ft) away from the truck and had a hole in it.
The broadcaster said the driver heard an explosion and jumped out of the truck. No one was harmed.
France's anti-terrorism prosecutors declined to comment.
The French foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the RMC report, nor did the Saudi government.
Follow us on Telegram
t.me/apanewsaz
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
