IHEMI: Vehicles as weapons – attack profiles and tactics

November 3rd, 2025

The IHEMI (Institut des hautes études du ministère de l’Intérieur), the French Interior Ministry’s institute of higher studies, co-organised with the center of research of the French national police (le centre de recherche de la Gendarmerie nationale) a conference on the mutation in violent tactics, particularly on the development of the use of vehicles as weapons.

Yan St-Pierre presented our study of almost 800 hostile vehicle attacks that have occured worldwide since 2021 and the – for many surprising – findings, including the top five motivations, targets and countries. In our study, we differentiate between terrorism and hate crimes as motivation, the reason being that terrorism often involves more planning on the part of the attacker, a most recent development here is the use of AI, whereas hate crimes often occur more spontaneously.

The audience comprised of security personnel, researchers and the private sector asked questions that could lead to additional research on the topic of HVA: Are perpetrators contrite after the attack? Is prevention feasible in a context where most attacks are reactive and motivated by personal and emotional grievances? What is the degree of overlap between the various motivations? Are there cognitive parallels with other forms of attacks, such as stabbings?

Thank you to Christine Dugoin-Clément, the IHEMI and the CRGN for organizing the event, and to Franck Peinaud and his team for hosting us.