PARIS (Sputnik) – Earlier French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet stated that the perpetrator of a ramming attack on a Gendarmerie vehicle in Paris was likely to be dead.
A white car crashed into a blue police van in central Paris around 15:40 local time (13:40 GMT), later bursting into flames. Nobody except the driver of the ramming vehicle got hurt after the incident. The attack is now being investigated by the anti-terror police.
"A man tried to assault the police truck on the Champs Elysees. We do not know his reasoning and motivation. Nobody is wounded. The driver of the car was arrested. The rest will be determined during the investigation. For the moment we do not possess any further information," a spokesperson of the Paris police prefecture said.
"Most likely the attacker died," Brandet told reporters.
The attacker is familiar to the police services since he was reportedly in the list of persons potentially dangerous to the national security, according to the local media.
The ramming attack on a Gendarmerie vehicle in Paris was intentional, the perpetrator was armed, French officials said Monday.
Brandet, in turn, confirmed that the attacker was armed.
"Preliminarily we speak of intentional actions," French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.
According to the BFMTV, the attacker was 33. The media outlet’s source said that a Kalashnikov assault rifle, handguns and munitions were found in his car.
Meanwhile, the Franceinfo channel reported that a gas cylinder was found in the car.
The French Interior Minister stated that the bomb disposal unit was working at the scene to check that there were no further threats.
