Three Of Six Soldiers Seriously Hurt In Paris Car Attack

French police officers work on the scene where French soldiers were hit and injured by a vehicle in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret near Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. French police are searchin... French police officers work on the scene where French soldiers were hit and injured by a vehicle in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret near Paris, France, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017. French police are searching for a driver who slammed his BMW into a group of soldiers, injuring six of them in an apparent ambush before speeding away, officials said. The incident in Levallois, northwest of Paris, is the latest of several attacks targeting security forces in France.(AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu) MORE LESS
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PARIS (AP) — The Latest on an attack on soldiers in a Paris suburb (all times local):

12:20 p.m.

France’s Defense Ministry says three soldiers were seriously injured in a car attack in a Paris suburb but their lives are not currently in danger.

The ministry said in a statement that six members of the 35th infantry regiment were injured in the incident, including three “more seriously.”

Defense Minister Florence Parly and Interior Minister Gerard Collomb are visiting soldiers hospitalized at the Begin military hospital in the suburb of Saint-Mande.

It was the latest of several attacks on members of the Sentinelle military operation tasked with protecting French sites after deadly attacks.

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11:35 a.m.

French counterterrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation into a car attack on soldiers in Paris suburb that left six injured.

The Paris prosecutor’s office says the investigation was opened after Wednesday’s incident in Levallois-Perret.

No one is specifically named in the investigation yet, but it aims at pursuing perpetrators on charges of attempted murder of security forces in connection with a terrorist enterprise, the prosecutor’s office said.

The move means authorities believe the attack was deliberate and planned with a terrorist motive.

The car and driver have not yet been found.

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11:15 a.m.

A Paris suburb where a vehicle rammed into soldiers is home to France’s main intelligence agency and a staging point for soldiers assigned to protect prominent sites after recent attacks.

Residents of Levallois-Perret are so accustomed to seeing security forces that resident Roseline Bailleux thought Wednesday’s attack was an exercise.

Bailleux, 67, was one of several people who said that the street where the soldiers were hit was nearly always thronged with soldiers.

She was woken in the morning by her husband, who had noticed a crush of ambulances and emergency vehicles.

“We thought it was an exercise,” she said.

She said that area was popular with parents and their children but the attack happened when they weren’t around.

She said she had been touched by several previous attacks, including the 2015 gun rampage at the Bataclan music venue in Paris — which was next door to where one of her children lived — and the 2016 Nice truck attack, which happened near where she used to live.

“I’m not going to stop walking through the park because of that. … It can happen to anyone.”

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10:15 a.m.

Police officials say a driver in a dark BMW is on the run after ramming his car into a large group of soldiers in what appeared to be a calculated ambush in a Paris suburb.

Two police officials say authorities are checking video surveillance of the area near the city hall of Levallois to identify the vehicle and hunt the driver responsible for Wednesday’s attack.

The officials said witnesses described seeing a BMW with one person on board waiting in a cul-de-sac near a building used for soldiers from the Sentinelle operation. One official said the attacker hit just as a group of soldiers emerged from the building to board vehicles for a new shift.

Neither official was authorized to be publicly named discussing ongoing operations.

—by Angela Charlton

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9:50 a.m.

The mayor of a Paris suburb where a vehicle ran down six soldiers says it was a deliberate act targeting security forces.

Levallois Mayor Patrick Balkany denounced on BFM television what he called an “odious attack” and said it was “without a doubt deliberate.”

Authorities are searching for the driver and vehicle, which drove away after the incident at Place de Verdun in Levallois, on the northwest edge of Paris.

It targeted soldiers from the Sentinelle security force created after Islamic extremist attacks in 2015.

The incident comes four days after a teenager with psychiatric problems tried to attack security forces guarding the Eiffel Tower.

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9:40 a.m.

French police say a vehicle slammed into soldiers guarding a Paris suburb, injuring six of them, before getting away.

Authorities are now searching for the vehicle and driver after the Wednesday incident, according to a Paris police spokesman.

The vehicle appeared to clearly target the soldiers but the motive is unclear, the spokesman said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to police policy.

Four people were injured lightly, two more seriously, the spokesman said.

The incident in Levallois, northwest of Paris, is the latest of several attacks targeting security forces in France guarding sites after a string of deadly attacks.

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