LEVALLOIS-PERRET, France (AP) — French police are searching for a driver who slammed his BMW into a group of soldiers in a Paris suburb Wednesday, injuring six of them in what appeared to be a carefully timed ambush before speeding away, officials said.
The driver’s motive is unclear, but officials said he deliberately aimed at the soldiers, and counterterrorism authorities opened an investigation. It is the latest of several attacks targeting security forces guarding France over the past year. While others have targeted prominent sites like the Eiffel Tower, Wednesday’s attack hit a leafy, relatively affluent suburb that is home to France’s main intelligence service, the DGSI.
Three of the soldiers suffered light injuries while three were more seriously injured, but their lives are not in danger, according to the Defense Ministry.
They were from the 35th infantry regiment and served in Operation Sentinelle, created to guard prominent French sites after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks in 2015.
Witnesses described seeing a BMW with one person inside waiting in a cul-de-sac near a building used for Sentinelle soldiers, according to two police officials. One official said the attacker hit just as a group of soldiers emerged from the building to board vehicles for a new shift.
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