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French police seek driver who tried to run down soldiers in Alps French police seek driver who tried to run down soldiers in Alps
(34 minutes later)
Police are searching for a driver who appeared to ram his vehicle into soldiers jogging outside their base in the French Alps, a source close to the investigation has told Reuters. Police are searching for a driver who appeared to ram his vehicle into soldiers jogging outside their base in the French Alps, the army has said.
France is on edge after an Islamic State loyalist went on a rampage in south-western France last Friday, killing four people in the first terror attack since President Emmanuel Macron lifted a two-year state of emergency. The man first threatened a group of soldiers who were out jogging at about 8am in Varces-Allieres-et-Risset, near Grenoble, and later tried to run down another group of soldiers returning from a jog, army spokesman Colonel Benoit Brulon told AFP.
“A person tried to run down two soldiers from the 93rd Mountain Artillery Regiment in Varces, for unknown reasons,” a source close to the investigation said on Thursday. “The soldiers managed to get up onto the pavement without being hit,” Brulon said. The driver then sped off.
“Given the context, the incident is being taken seriously but we don’t know his motivations. No one was injured.” The local Dauphine Libere newspaper said the man is suspected to have been driving a stolen Peugeot 208.
More to follow... Police sealed off the area and began a search for the driver, while the army stepped up security around the barracks, Brulon said.
“A person tried to run down two soldiers from the 93rd Mountain Artillery Regiment in Varces, for unknown reasons,” a source close to the investigation told Reuters. “Given the context, the incident is being taken seriously but we don’t know his motivations. No one was injured.”
France is on edge after an Islamic State loyalist went on a rampage in south-west France last Friday, killing four people including a policeman who took the place of a hostage in a supermarket siege.
On Thursday, the four victims of the attack in the town of Carcassonne and nearby Trèbes, including the heroic officer, Arnaud Beltrame, will be laid to rest in the region.
Paying tribute to Beltrame at a national ceremony in Paris on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron said his act of self-sacrifice would “remain etched in French hearts”.
More than 240 people have been killed in a series of jihadi attacks around France over the past three years, and the security forces have been targeted on several occasions.
In April 2017, a policeman was shot dead while on duty on the Champs Elysees in Paris. Four months later, a man rammed his car into a group of soldiers on anti-terror patrol in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, injuring six people.
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