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Terrorism Is Suspected After Man Drives Into Police Convoy on Champs-Élysées Armed Man Is Killed After Driving Into Police Convoy on Champs-Élysées
(35 minutes later)
PARIS — A man was immobilized, and most likely killed, Monday afternoon after he rammed a car into a police convoy on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, the French authorities said. PARIS — An armed man was killed in Paris on Monday afternoon after he rammed a car into a police convoy on the Champs-Élysées, the French authorities said.
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened a terrorism investigation, suggesting that the authorities believed the collision was intentional. A convoy of vehicles belonging to the gendarmerie, one of France’s police forces, was traveling on the Champs-Élysées around 3:40 p.m. when a man drove up in a Renault Mégane and struck the lead vehicle in the convoy, said Johanna Primevert, a spokeswoman for the Paris police prefecture. The car caught on fire.
Police officers have been the target of several attacks in France in the past months and years. In April, a gunman wielding an assault rifle shot at police officers on the Champs-Élysées, killing one of them. Gérard Collomb, the interior minister, said the man had died. Ms. Primevert said that no bystanders had been injured.
The Paris police prefecture said on Twitter that a police operation was being carried out in the area and it warned people to stay away. French television showed police officers cordoning off the area, not far from the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the French president. Nearby subway stations were closed, officials said.
But the police added that the situation was “under control.” The Paris prosecutor’s office opened a terrorism investigation.
French television showed police officers cordoning off the area, not far from the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the French president. Nearby Métro stations were closed, officials said. Police and military officers in France have been targeted by a string of attacks in recent months and years.
On social media, witnesses reported seeing a car, a Renault Mégane, on fire on the Champs-Élysées, the famed avenue in western Paris that is both a tourist attraction and a shopping district. In June 2016, France was horrified by the killing of a police officer and his companion in Magnanville, a small town near Paris, by a man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
In February, a 29-year-old man armed with two large knives and shouting “God is great” in Arabic lunged at a military patrol near an entrance to the Louvre in Paris and wounded a soldier. The assailant was shot by another soldier.
In March, a gunman was killed at Orly Airport, south of Paris, after attacking a soldier.
In April, days before the first round of France’s presidential elections, a gunman wielding an assault rifle shot at police officers on the Champs-Élysées, killing one. The gunman was shot dead by the police as he tried to flee on foot.
This month, a man was arrested in Paris after he used a hammer to attack police officers patrolling in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral. The assailant was shot and wounded.