Kuwait: Hit-and-run driver kills police officer on National Day
A rogue motorist killed one police officer and injured five others in Kuwait, as the country commemorated its National Day.
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File Photo: Kuwaitis celebrated their National and Liberation Days on Thursday and Friday [Getty]
A Kuwaiti police officer was killed and five others wounded on Thursday when a hit-and-run driver collided with them at a checkpoint in the capital, Kuwait City.
Police pursued the car and apprehended the rogue driver after he tried to flee the scene - the male suspect has been named as Abdel Aziz Walid al-Shamlan.
"When the 20-year-old suspect was taken into custody he was behaving very strangely. He has a criminal record of drug arrests," a source in the Kuwaiti police told The New Arab.
The source denied that the incident was a terrorist attack.
The suspect's father told state media that his son had a history of mental health problems and that "no sane person would have done such an act".
Kuwait is still reeling from last year's bombing of a Shia mosque in the capital by the Islamic State group that killed 26 people and wounded 227 others.
The hit-and-run happened as Kuwaitis celebrated their National and Liberation Days, which fall on Thursday and Friday.
Police pursued the car and apprehended the rogue driver after he tried to flee the scene - the male suspect has been named as Abdel Aziz Walid al-Shamlan.
"When the 20-year-old suspect was taken into custody he was behaving very strangely. He has a criminal record of drug arrests," a source in the Kuwaiti police told The New Arab.
The source denied that the incident was a terrorist attack.
The suspect's father told state media that his son had a history of mental health problems and that "no sane person would have done such an act".
Kuwait is still reeling from last year's bombing of a Shia mosque in the capital by the Islamic State group that killed 26 people and wounded 227 others.
The hit-and-run happened as Kuwaitis celebrated their National and Liberation Days, which fall on Thursday and Friday.
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