Champs-Elysees on lockdown amid police security alert
- UPDATE 11:34: FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER GERARD COLLOMB SAYS CHAMPS-ELYSEE CAR CONTAINED EXPLOSIVES, DRIVER DEAD
- UPDATE 11:38: Kalashnikov, handguns, gas bottles in Champs-Elysees car: police sources
- Champs-Elysees attack driver is dead: interior minister
By Gareth Davies For Mailonline
Published: 10:12 EDT, 19 June 2017 | Updated: 10:54 EDT, 19 June 2017
A driver with a gun has been arrested after ramming a police van on the Champs-Élysées.
His car burst into flames moments after impact and was left seriously injured.
A police officers was videoed stripping his clothes from the unconscious assailant to check for a suicide bomb.
A witness in the capital said he heard shots being fired and smoke coming from one of the vehicles.
Paris police say a security operation is underway in the shopping district where there were reports of a car being abandoned on the world-famous avenue which has been cordoned off
A witness in the capital said he heard shots being fired and smoke coming from one of the vehicles.
Armed police cordon off area near Champs-Élysées
It is understood the car crashed into a police van and that there were no casualties as video footage emerged of the aftermath.
Incident unfolding at Champs Elysees in Paris, as heavily armed police arrest man. pic.twitter.com/3J1or8JsZW
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) June 19, 2017
People were seen fleeing the area as police officers armed with machine guns frantically cleared the tourist hotspot.
A witness, who was just 20 metres from the incident, said: 'Large bangs followed by what sounded like shots fired near a car with smoke coming out of it on Champs Elysees.'
He added that one person was on the ground and that everyone in the area was told to run.
A journalist who happened to be in the area at the time said the man deliberately crashed his car into the van causing his vehicle to be set alight.
Officers leapt into action and broke the car window to drag him from the flames.
Paris police said a security operation is underway in the shopping district where there were reports of a car being abandoned on the world-famous avenue which has been cordoned off.
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