The Champs-Elysées, in Paris, in the Marigny theater area, was cordoned off on Monday afternoon. Two months after the attack police on the same avenue, a car drove into a police van, causing no injuries. The driver died. The anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor opened an investigation
What happened on the Champs-Elysées?
Around 3.40pm on Monday, a man was hit by car, a white Renault Megane, before driving into the van at the head of a squadron of gendarmes coming down the Champs-Elysées in Paris, no injuries. But his car was burning on impact.
According to Alain Peudenier, journalist of West-France on site at the beginning of the facts, a person had been evacuated a car. “On the ground, the man is now unconscious”, had initially said police sources. The driver eventually died, according to the Ministry of Interior.
Why a security perimeter?
The Paris police headquarters conducted the evacuation of part of the Champs-Elysées, up Marigny Theater, a few hundred meters from the place where a policeman was killed by a jihadist ago two months . A large security perimeter was set up, traffic was blocked by the authorities and the Metro station Champs-Elysées-Clemenceau was closed to the public. In a tweet, the prefecture announced that the situation was under control, however the security perimeter is still in place.
???? #ChampsÉlysées Situation maîtrisée, pas de blessé parmi les forces de l’ordre et le public
— Préfecture de police (@prefpolice) June 19, 2017
“Bomb clearance operations are underway, items and relief progress slowly to not to take any risk,” said the spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior, Pierre-Henry Brandet.
Why did the terrorism prosecutor opened an investigation?
The man was stuck “S” (for “state security”) since 2015 for membership in “the radical Islamist movement” . His family was known to be part of the movement “Salafi”. In the car, gas canisters, handguns and a Kalashnikov were found. The anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor opened an investigation. He was not known to the court, according to a police source.
A search was underway Monday night at Plessis-Pâté, in Essonne, in the home of the driver, a French national aged 31 years.
The Interior Minister, Gérard Collomb, visited locally. He referred to “an assassination attempt” and recalled “ the need for the state of emergency ”. “Once again the security forces in France were covered with the attempted attack on the Champs-Elysées”, he said at a press statement, not far from where occurred the alleged attack.
There are two months of he police had already been targeted on 20 April on the Champs Elysees. Karim Cheurfi , 39, known for acts of delinquency, was shot with a Kalashnikov assault rifle on a police car and police on guard outside the office of Turkish tourism.
A police officer was shot twice in the head and two others were wounded. The gunman was shot dead by the security forces.
Une nouvelle fois nos forces de sécurité ont été visées. La menace est extrêmement élevée.#ChampsElysées pic.twitter.com/rpxUaTlK1c
— Gérard Collomb (@gerardcollomb) June 19, 2017
The debate on the state of emergency is it raised?
“This shows once again that the level of threat in France is extremely high,” said Gerard Collomb.
“To those who questioned the need for such legislation, it is clear today that the state of France requires it, that if we are to effectively extend the security of our citizens, we need we can take a number of measures ” , said the minister, who must present the Cabinet Wednesday a new anti-terrorism law, intended to leave the state of emergency.
Gérard Collomb “held to meet the gendarmes of the mobile gendarmerie squadron of Chaumont (Haute-Marne)” , which were covered by the assailant, “to show their support” , said the spokesman of the interior Pierre-Henry Brandet.
