Driver in blast bid
Jihadist dies as explosives- packed car rams Paris police van
A 31- YEAR- OLD man on a jihadist watchlist rammed a car loaded with guns and a gas bottle into a police van on the Champs Elysees but inflicted no casualties, in the latest of a string of attacks in Paris.
The assailant died in the incident, although investigators offered no immediate details.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the assault.
The attack – which oc- curred just a short distance from where a jihadist shot dead a police officer two months earlier – was carried out by a man who had been on France’s security watchlist since 2015 over ties to “the radical Islamist movement”, sources close to the probe said.
They identified him as Adam Dzaziri, who had been raised in the hardline Salafi Islamic ideology.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said a car hit the leading vehicle in a line of police vans as they headed down the Champs Elysees.
“The security forces have been targeted in France once again,” he said.
Ministry spokesman PierreHenry Brandet said the car caught fire.
Video showed thick orange smoke pouring from the car after the impact while police sources said they found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, two handguns, ammunition as well as a gas bottle in the car.
The “arms, explosives ... could potentially blow this car up,” Mr Collomb said.
No police or bystanders were injured.
The suspect’s father said his son “had a registered weapon, he practised shooting”.
Police searched the residence the suspect shared with his family in Plessis- Pate, a town about 40 minutes’ drive from central Paris.
The local mayor Sylvain Tanguy said the family was “very discreet and didn’t go out much”.
“You could tell when you saw them in the street that they were very religious,” he said.