PARIS: French police are searching for a driver who ploughed into soldiers patrolling an upmarket Paris suburb on Wednesday morning.
The car sped off after hitting six members of Opération Sentinelle, part of France’s ongoing state of emergency introduced after the November 2015 terrorist attacks.
Six military personnel were hurt – two of them seriously. The two seriously injured soldiers were taken to the Percy military hospital at Clamart, near the French capital. None of the injuries are thought to be life-threatening.
Patrick Balkany, the mayor of Levallois-Perret, told BFMTV that a BMW parked nearby appeared to have been waiting for the soldiers to leave their barracks.
He described the attack as a “deliberate aggression”.
“It’s without doubt a deliberate act … This vehicle was waiting for them,” Balkany said. “The BMW accelerated very quickly the moment they came out. This happened in the middle of the town. It happened very quickly.”
London and France have both been hit by car-ramming terror attacks in the last 18 months.
A police spokesperson said the vehicle appeared to clearly target the soldiers but the motive is unclear. Its been described as a hit and run.
Police are now looking for the vehicle involved in the possible attack.