Dakar Rally blast driver Boutron out of coma

French driver Philippe Boutron, seriously injured in a blast being investigated as a suspected terror attack on 30 December in Saudi Arabia days before the start of the Dakar Rally, has emerged from a coma, his son said on Thursday.

Benoit Boutron said his father still has a long way to go as he has serious leg injuries even after undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia prior to being repatriated.

French prosecutors opened a terror probe over the incident on Tuesday with 61-year-old Boutron the sole member of the five occupants injured.

"He is seriously injured, he has though emerged from his coma," Benoit Boutron told French channel RMC.

"The positive thing is that along with other members of the family, we can visit him on a daily basis.

"Both his legs are badly injured and we will know more in the coming days.

"We were able to see him, we can talk to him, for the moment though it is limited.

"He needs time to recover but things are progressing little by little."

Dakar organisers had said that the incident was not related to racing while Saudi authorities had indicated there was no criminal suspicion over the explosion.

But France's foreign ministry then updated its advice on Saudi Arabia, contradicting comments about the incident made by both the Saudi authorities and the organisers. 

"An appeal for maximum alertness -- security risk," it said on its website after the blast.

"An investigation by Saudi authorities is underway to determine the cause of this explosion. The possibility of a criminal act has not been ruled out," it added. 

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. 

The final stage of this year's edition -- known as the Dakar 2022 -- is to take place on 14 January.