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July 27, 2015

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Paris police open fire on car at Tour de France finish line

PARIS police were last night searching for a car that struck a taxi and crashed through barricades set up near the Tour de France finish line yesterday morning, drawing police fire hours before the arrival of cyclists and spectators. Police said they didn’t suspect terrorism.

The car escaped with at least two occupants apparently unharmed after police opened fire on the vehicle in the Place de la Concorde, where the cyclists make their final triumphant rounds to conclude the race, according to officials.

Paris has been on edge since attacks in January by Islamic extremists on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery killed 20 people, including the three attackers. Thousands of police and soldiers have been deployed on the streets after the attacks to protect sensitive sites and tourists attractions.

A cycling official said police saw little chance of links between yesterday’s incident and the Tour de France, or terrorism.

However, he cautioned that prudence was necessary as long as the car’s occupants were on the loose.

He said the running hypothesis was that the car’s occupants had left one of the nightclubs in the ritzy neighborhood, were intoxicated or had taken illegal substances and didn’t want to submit to a police check.

He said that the car had first been spotted on a street that feeds into the nearby Champs-Elysees, the famed avenue where thousands gather to watch the final laps of the Tour de France, and where crowd control barriers were being put in place.

The car skirted the area and struck a taxi at the Place de la Concorde near the start of the Tuileries Gardens, the official said. Police officers then opened fire.

It is extremely rare for gunfire to be heard at the Place de la Concorde, a luxury tourist haunt across the Seine River from the National Assembly, the lower chamber of the French Parliament.

The official put the time of the incident at 7:50am, just under 10 hours before riders were due to arrive in the French capital.

Luc Poignant, a spokesman for the SGP police union, said that officers were finishing setting up the barricades for the race when the car tried to crash through them.

Officers opened fire on the vehicle, which ultimately drove away.

Poignant told the BFM television network that no officers were injured during the incident.




 

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