Jan 4, 2022: The French prosecution said on Tuesday that it had opened a terror probe in to a Dakar rally crash in Saudi Arabia on December 30, injuring its French driver.

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that a preliminary investigation has been opened into multiple attempted killings in connection with a terrorist group,” national anti-terror prosecutors said in a statement.

The statement did not give further details about the Jeddah blast, which saw driver Philip Butron need surgery in Saudi Arabia for severe leg injuries before returning to France.

Organizers said the incident was not related to racing, while Saudi officials indicated there was no criminal suspicion of the blast.

The famous race, formerly known as the Paris-Dakar, but now just as The Dakar, used to be staged from the French capital following a route to the Senegalese capital Dakar.

But security threats along its route in North Africa meant that from 2009 it was held in South America and from 2020 in Saudi Arabia.

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