French security forces have shot and arrested a man suspected of being behind an attack on a group of soldiers on Wednesday morning in a Paris suburb, security sources told AFP.
The man, aged in his late 30s, was intercepted on a motorway north of the French capital in a vehicle used to drive into the soldiers, the sources said, asking not to be named.
The car involved sped off after the incident, sparking Paris prosecutors' office anti-terrorism unit to launch a probe into "attempted killings... in relation to a terrorist undertaking".
Defence Minister Florence Parly condemned the car ramming as a "cowardly act", saying it did "nothing to dent soldiers' determination to work for the security of the French people".
France, which has been under a state of emergency since the November 2015 attacks in Paris, has seen a string of assaults on security forces, including those guarding key tourist sites.
Parly said three of the soldiers were "more seriously injured". All six were hospitalised, but none have life-threatening injuries, Balkany said.
They are part of the 7,000-strong anti-terrorism Sentinelle force set up after the November 2015 bombings and shootings that killed 130 people in the French capital and were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
IS has repeatedly said that France is a target because of its participation in the US-led international coalition fighting the jihadist group, with French jets carrying out air strikes against the extremist group in Syria.
'Car accelerated very fast'
Wednesday's incident took place at about 8:00 am outside the barracks in the northwestern Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.
"This morning, as a group of our soldiers were leaving their barracks to go out on patrol, a BMW vehicle parked in the alley rammed into them," Balkany told news channel BFMTV, adding that the car had "accelerated very fast".
Police gather at the site where a car slammed into soldiers on patrol in Levallois-Perret, outside Paris, on August 9, 2017. (Getty) Source: Getty
The wave of attacks in France has had a serious impact on tourism in the world's top tourist destination, but the industry has begun to recover as incidents have become more widespread and generally less deadly.
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