Shot by police, Paris ‘terrorist’ who ran down six soldiers
A TERRORISM suspect was under guard in intensive care last night after running down six soldiers with a hired BMW in a Paris suburb.
Five police bullets hit the 36-yearold after he initially escaped the scene of the attack at Levallois-Perret.
It is meant to be one of the most secure towns in France, as it contains the headquarters of the DGSI, the country’s main counter-terrorism intelligence agency.
The attacker, believed to be illegal Algerian immigrant Hamou Bachir,
‘They did not have a chance’
was not known to the security services but had been facing deportation back to his home country.
But just before 8am yesterday, he ploughed into a uniformed and heavily armed unit of the 35th Infantry Regiment as they took part in Operation Sentinel, a key anti-terrorism initiative.
Three troops were badly hurt and were taken to a military hospital, while the others were treated at the scene.
Witness Thierry Chappe said: ‘ I heard a huge crash which I thought was the sound of scaffolding being put up. ‘ Then I saw soldiers scattered all over the ground’.
The black BMW 2 Series then sped away but its number plate was picked up by surveillance cameras, enabling police to establish it was a hire car with an integrated GPS system. This meant tracking the vehicle was relatively straightforward, and by early afternoon a chase was under way on the A16 motorway, as it raced towards Calais, some 180 miles away.
Two specialist firearms units from Lille and Rouen engaged at 1.30pm close to the port town of Boulogne-sur-Mer. They stopped the car at a Total service station, and told the man dressed in a white shirt to get out of the car with his hands up.
Instead, the suspect made ‘a sudden movement’ as if he was taking a gun out and then tried to escape, a source said.
‘ He was hit by five police bullets, while an officer received a slight wound to his thigh,’ said another source close to the case, indicating that the attacker was unarmed.
‘ The suspect was severely wounded, and taken to intensive care in a nearby hospital. He is under close guard,’ said the same source. Operation Sentinel was set up in 2015 following a series of atrocities in Paris by Islamic State and Al-Qaeda operatives. As part of it, there are 10,000 soldiers and 4,700 police and gendarmes patrolling France.
Local mayor Patrick Balkany, said those responsible for yesterday’s attack ‘were terrorists – there’s no other word’.
He added: ‘The soldiers were taken by surprise. They did not have a chance.’
The driver was seen lurking at a barracks 700 yards from DGSI HQ as two three-man patrols swapped shifts. He then approached them slowly ‘before speeding up,’ said Mr Balkany. ‘The attacker didn’t say a single word and did not fire any guns,’ said an Armed Forces ministry spokesman in Paris.
The French interior ministry said Bachir will be ‘ questioned at length when his condition allows’.
France remains under a State of Emergency following a string of attacks, including an attempt to kill a soldier at the Eiffel Tower on Saturday. The 19-year-old psychiatric patient is in custody after he brandished a knife and pledged allegiance to Isis.