国际英语资讯:Car with explosives rams into police van in Paris, driver dies: minister_时事

国际英语资讯:Car with explosives rams into police van in Paris, driver dies: minister

PARIS, June 19 -- A car rammed into a police van Monday on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris before bursting into flames, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

Collomb said the driver died when the car exploded, noting that weapons and explosives have been found in the car.

"Once again our security forces have been targeted. The threat is extremely high," Collomb said on Twitter.

国际英语资讯:Car with explosives rams into police van in Paris, driver dies: minister1

At 15:40 local time (1340 GMT), a man with his vehicle crashed into police van near the presidential Palace. His car had caught fire due to a gas cylinder on board which likely triggered the fire, according to BFMTV news channel.

The 31-year-old driver was armed and has been already on police radar, it added.

Speaking to reporters, interior ministry's spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the incident "seems to be a voluntary act".

On Twitter, Paris prefecture wrote "situation under control". But, it called Parisians to avoid the area which is cordoned off.

No casualties have been reported into the incident, it added. Paris prosecutor's anti-terrorism section had opened an investigation into the incident.

The Champs Elysee attack came a few days after a PhD student on media tried to attack police officers with a hammer outside Notre Dame Cathedral in the French capital in an act to revenge war in Syria.

Under pressure to muscle security at home and forge an effective action plan against alarming terror risks, President Emmanuel Macron decided to create the National Center for Counter Terrorism, a new body including all the country's intelligences services to better coordinate response to eventual terror risk.