Car rams police van on Paris' Champs Elysees, driver dead

[webfact]

Car rams police van on Paris' Champs Elysees, driver dead

By Johnny Cotton and Michel Rose

 

French police officers engage with a suspect outside a car at the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris, France June 19, 2017 in this still image obtained from social media. EUGENIO MORCILLO via REUTERS

 

PARIS (Reuters) - A man deliberately rammed a car carrying weapons and explosives into a police van as it drove in a convoy down Paris's Champs Elysees avenue on Monday, officials said.

 

The man, who was known to French security services, died in the incident and the Paris prosecutor's counter-terrorism unit said it had opened an investigation.

 

It was unclear how the man, who was not named, had died. Nobody else was hurt.

 

French policemen secure the area around a burned car on the Champs Elysees avenue after an incident in Paris, France, June 19, 2017. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

 

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the car had been carrying weapons and explosives. "This once again shows that the threat level in France is extremely high," Collomb told journalists near the scene.

 

France has been on high security alert following a series of militant Islamist attacks, including the shooting of a policeman in an Islamic State-claimed attack on a police bus on the Champs Elysees, one of the world's most famous thoroughfares, in April.

 

Eighty-six people died in a truck attack on a crowd in Nice last year and similar incidents have occurred in other European cities.

The incident in Paris came hours after a van ploughed into Muslim worshippers near a mosque in London, injuring 10 people.

 

In the Paris incident, eyewitnesses saw the man being pulled from the car as it burned, and footage on the Daily Mail web site later showed an officer stripping clothes from the body.

 

The car struck the front of the van as it overtook a convoy of police vehicles, a police spokeswoman said. Footage recorded shortly afterwards at the site, a short walk from the Elysee presidential palace and the U.S. embassy, showed yellow smoke billowing from the car.

 

"We saw big flames coming out of the front windows of the car," 16-year-old eyewitness Adrien Cairo told Reuters.

 

"Then suddenly we saw four policemen arrive, they knocked on the window, they said 'Sir, are you alright? Can you hear us?'

 

He said police broke the window and pulled the man from the car while other police used fire extinguishers to put out the blaze.

 

President Emmanuel Macron said last month his government would ask parliament to extend wider search and arrest powers granted under a state of emergency called after Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in and around Paris in November 2015.

 

Some magistrates and human rights groups have protested against the proposal that would enshrine in ordinary law measures currently in place under the state of emergency.

 

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander and Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-20

[darksidedog]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

It was unclear how the man, who was not named, had died. Nobody else was hurt.

That works for me, no innocent people injured, and one scumbag dead. And I don't really care how he died. The important part is he did.

[AhFarangJa]

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

That works for me, no innocent people injured, and one scumbag dead. And I don't really care how he died. The important part is he did.

I wholeheartedly second that......A good result, well done the security forces.

[natway09]

Your right. This is the way to do it. Problem solved. The police knew exactly where this scumbag was & what

he was angling to do

[Morch]

Attacker was on terrorist watch list, and had a weapon permit. Not sure that merits congratulating security forces in general, perhaps more relevant to those on the scene.

 

http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/20/paris-attack-driver-had-firearms-license-despite-being-known-to-police

[simple1]

27 minutes ago, Morch said:

Attacker was on terrorist watch list, and had a weapon permit. Not sure that merits congratulating security forces in general, perhaps more relevant to those on the scene.

 

http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/20/paris-attack-driver-had-firearms-license-despite-being-known-to-police

A gap in legal process co-ordination which the French are claiming they will fix.

[Morch]

20 minutes ago, simple1 said:

A gap in legal process co-ordination which the French are claiming they will fix.

I can dig back and find previous examples. Not a first, nor the first time authorities said it will be fixed.

On another scale, this also relates to coordination issues between EU members.

[simple1]

3 minutes ago, Morch said:

I can dig back and find previous examples. Not a first, nor the first time authorities said it will be fixed. On another scale, this also relates to coordination issues between EU members.

Agree. IMO Western governments have the intent but often rather slow to enact new legislation in a parliamentary democracy with all of the process issues. Don't know how this fits with France with the State of Emergency power still in place.

[Morch]

2 minutes ago, simple1 said:

Agree. IMO Western governments have the intent but often rather slow to enact new legislation in a parliamentary democracy with all of the process issues. Don't know how this fits with France with the State of Emergency power still in place.

Guess this is one of them times where the balance between freedoms and liberties vs. security comes into play. Unfortunately, what is ought to be a serious discussion often turns into a partisan slogan competition.