A Palestinian girl, hoping to cross into Egypt with her mother, is pictured through a fence
A Palestinian girl, hoping to cross into Egypt with her mother, is pictured through a fence as she waits at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip December 21, 2014. Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing on Sunday allowing Palestinians from Gaza Strip to travel in and out for the first time since the passage was closed on October 25, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said. The Rafah crossing was shut on Oct. 25 after Islamist militants in Egypt's adjacent Sinai region killed 33 members of the security forces in some of the worst anti-state violence since Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was toppled in July 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

A driver ran down a number of pedestrians, seriously injuring at least a couple of them in France. The man shouted "Allah is Great" while driving recklessly throughout the city.

The incident injured 11 people while running down random pedestrians in five parts of the Dijon city within half an hour. Two of them were seriously injured even though they were not in danger. The man, who was soon arrested, is believed to be "apparently imbalanced," BBC reported. He reportedly spent time in a psychiatric hospital before. According to witnesses, the man acted "for the children of Palestine." However, a source said that the motives of the attacker had been "still unclear." An interior ministry spokesman said that it was believed that the attacker had been acting alone. He also said that the driver had police records 20 years back in relation to minor incidents.

This is the second occasion in a couple of days when a man shouted "Allah is Great" during a random attack. Another man attacked police officers on Saturday with a knife. The man, who was shot dead by the officers, also shouted similar chants in Arabic. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that the man had been "very unstable." An inquiry into the attack was launched by anti-terrorism investigators. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls expressed his solidarity with the victim in a tweet. A source close to the investigation told the AFP news agency that the driver, who deliberately hit random people, was born in 1974.

Even though the Interior Ministry did not confirm it, there were claims that the driver was apparently motivated by Islamist extremism. Police union official Michel Bonnet said that some witnesses heard the driver chant "Allahu Akbar" and referred to Palestine and its children. France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe estimated to be around six million. Islamist extremists launched a number of "lone wolf" attacks in recent years.

Mohammed Merah killed seven people in 2012 when he opened fire in the city of Toulouse. A police siege killed the man. A Muslim convert stabbed a soldier in Paris in 2013. On the other hand, the prime suspect of the murder of four people at a Belgian museum earlier in 2014 was a French man who had reportedly fought in Syria.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au