DRIVER ARRESTED AFTER RAMMING FRENCH SOLDIERS
A man rammed his car into a group of soldiers near Paris, injuring six of them, and then was cornered by police in a highway manhunt.
It’s unclear what motivated the driver, hospitalized with bullet wounds after a calculated morning ambush and hours-long police chase. But authorities said he deliberately accelerated his BMW into a cluster of soldiers in what prosecutors are investigating as a potential terrorist attack.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government painted the incident in the suburb of Levallois-Perret as proof of the need to approve a new security law that critics fear infringes on liberties and puts the country in a permanent state of emergency.
Wednesday’s attack caused no deaths and hurt no civilians, but still set nerves on edge — the seventh attempted attack on security forces guarding France this year alone. While others have targeted prominent sites like the Eiffel Tower, Wednesday’s attack hit the leafy, relatively affluent suburb of Levallois-Perret that is home to France’s main intelligence service, the DGSI, and its counterterrorism service.
“We know it was a deliberate act,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. Defence Minister Florence Parly called it a reminder that extra security measures imposed in recent years are “more necessary than ever.”