Police in France have apprehended a man in connection with an attack on a group of soldiers in a Paris suburb earlier today.
Officers shot, wounded and arrested the suspect, following a dramatic car chase on a motorway in the north of the country.
A BMW spattered with bullet holes could be seen where the police had brought it to a halt following the high-speed pursuit.
The arrest comes after six soldiers were struck and injured earlier this morning when a driver deliberately ploughed into them as they were patrolling a Paris suburb. The men were part of Opération Sentinelle, part of France's state of emergency, which has been ongoing since the November 2015 terrorist attacks.
Credit: PA
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"Without any doubt, it was a deliberate act," Mr Patrick Balkany, Mayor of Levallois-Perret, told broadcaster BFM TV.
"It all happened very quickly. The vehicle did not stop. It hurtled at them... it accelerated rapidly," he said.
"The soldiers were rushed to hospital," he added.
Mr Balkany went on to denounce the attack as 'intolerable'.
"It's without doubt a deliberate act ... This vehicle was waiting for them," he continued.
"The BMW accelerated very quickly the moment they came out. This happened in the middle of the town. It happened very quickly.
"Levallois is a calm place ... this is an odious aggression against our military that nobody expected."
Two of the soldiers were seriously injured and all were taken to hospital, although none of their injuries are thought to be life-threatening.
Police working near the scene of this morning's attack. Credit: PA
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A resident in a nearby block of flats, Jean-Claude Veillant, told reporters about how he had witnessed the aftermath of the attack.
"I heard a loud noise, the sound of scraping metal. Shortly after, I saw one of the badly wounded lying in front of the Vigipirate [army patrol] vehicle and another one behind it receiving treatment," he said.
10,000 soldiers are currently patrolling France as part of the operation. They are joined by 4,700 police and gendarmes.
Today's attack is the latest in a long string of incidents that have been blighting the French capital.
Most recently, in June, an Islamic State supporter drove a car carrying firearms and a gas canister into a military vehicle stationed on the Champs Élysées in central Paris, but luckily nobody other than the driver was hurt.
The driver of the vehicle died in the attempted attack on the famous Paris avenue, which was the scene of two terror attacks in the space of three months.
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Source: BBC News