Man who 'deliberately' ploughed BMW into French soldiers arrested

One policeman was wounded by a stray bullet during
the arrest, which took place on the A16 motorway
near Marquise, close to the ports of Boulogne-Sur-
Mer and Calais.
A Reuters witness at the scene saw ambulances
surround a BMW car which had several bullet holes in
it.
Six of a dozen or so troops were injured in this
morning's attack - three of them seriously - in the
Levallois-Perret suburb of the city.
The man was stopped after a chase on a
motorway
The incident is being investigated by counter-
terrorism officials.
The attacker had been waiting in the dark-coloured
car in an alleyway before he drove at speed at the
troops as they left their barracks to go on patrol at
around 8am local time.
Nadia LeProhon heard the smash and came running
out of her building to find two soldiers on the ground
and other troops running after a vehicle shouting:
"After him! Follow that car!"
Police in balaclavas at the scene of arrest
Mayor of Levallois-Perret, Patrick Balkany,
condemned the attack as "an odious act of
aggression", adding: "Without any doubt, it was a
deliberate act."
"It all happened very quickly. The vehicle did not
stop. It hurtled at them... it accelerated rapidly," he
told broadcaster BFMTV.
Officers and soldiers secured the scene - situated
around three miles from city centre landmarks such
as the Eiffel Tower - as forensic teams arrived to
gather evidence.
Investigators were also scouring through CCTV
footage from the suburb, as police stopped motorists
in the region as they searched for the attacker.
Emergency services at the scene of the attack in
Paris
The Paris prosecutor's office said it was "pursuing
perpetrators on charges of the attempted murder of
security forces in connection with a terrorist
enterprise".
It means authorities believe the attack was
intentional and planned with a terror-related motive.
The soldiers, who were taken to a military hospital,
were on duty as part of Operation Sentinelle, created
to guard prominent French sites after the Charlie
Hebdo attack in January 2015.
Police and troops secure the area
Sky's Europe Correspondent Mark Stone said: "It is a
subject of intense debate in France whether
Operation Sentinelle - soldiers on the streets, helping
out the police force - exacerbates the situation and
they themselves become targets because they are
literally everywhere, not only in Paris."
The attack comes four days after a teenager with a
knife forced his way into the Eiffel Tower shouting
"Allahu akbar" - the Arabic phrase for "God is great" -
and told police he wanted to attack a soldier.
The soldiers were attacked in the northwestern
suburb of Levallois-Perret
It is the sixth time soldiers involved in the nationwide
security crackdown have been targeted. In February,
a man with a machete attacked troops near the
Louvre Museum.
French defence minister Florence Parly described
Wednesday's attack as "cowardly", adding that it
"does nothing to dent soldiers' determination to work
for the security of the French people".
France has been under a state of emergency since
the November 2015 attacks in the French capital
which left 130 people dead.
Mr Philippe said that despite a "high threat" against
France, the government is sticking to plans to lift the
21-month state of emergency on 1 November.

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