A man deliberately rammed a car carrying weapons and explosives into a police van as it drove in a convoy down Paris's Champs Elysees avenue on Monday, officials said.
The man, who was known to French security services, died in the incident and the Paris prosecutor's counter-terrorism unit said it had opened an investigation.
It was unclear how the man, who was not named, had died. Nobody else was hurt.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the car had been carrying weapons and explosives. "This once again shows that the threat level in France is extremely high," Collomb told journalists near the scene.
France has been on high security alert following a series of militant Islamist attacks, including the shooting of a policeman in an Islamic State-claimed attack on a police bus on the Champs Elysees, one of the world's most famous thoroughfares, in April.
Eighty-six people died in a truck attack on a crowd in Nice last year and similar incidents have occurred in other European cities.
The incident in Paris came hours after a van ploughed into Muslim worshippers near a mosque in London, injuring 10 people.
In the Paris incident, eyewitnesses saw the man being pulled from the car as it burned, and footage on the Daily Mail web site later showed an officer stripping clothes from the body.
The car struck the front of the van as it overtook a convoy of police vehicles, a police spokeswoman said. Footage recorded shortly afterwards at the site, a short walk from the Elysee presidential palace and the U.S. embassy, showed yellow smoke billowing from the car.
"We saw big flames coming out of the front windows of the car," 16-year-old eyewitness Adrien Cairo told Reuters.
"Then suddenly we saw four policemen arrive, they knocked on the window, they said 'Sir, are you alright? Can you hear us?'
He said police broke the window and pulled the man from the car while other police used fire extinguishers to put out the blaze.
President Emmanuel Macron said last month his government would ask parliament to extend wider search and arrest powers granted under a state of emergency called after Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in and around Paris in November 2015.
Some magistrates and human rights groups have protested against the proposal that would enshrine in ordinary law measures currently in place under the state of emergency.
Reuters
Tue Jun 20 2017
Police secure the area near a burned car at the scene of an incident in which it rammed a gendarmerie van on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, June 19, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau
Kru Shenzhou-18 berjaya masuk stesen angkasa Tiangong
Kru Shenzhou-18 China berjaya memasuki stesen angkasa Tiangong selepas kapal angkasa yang dinaiki mereka bercantum dengan kombinasi stesen angkasa secara automatik pada 5.04 pagi Jumaat.
Kemas kini Windows 11 papar iklan pada menu Start, bagaimana untuk matikannya?
Microsoft memberi ruang untuk pengguna Windows 11 menyembunyikan paparan iklan berkenaan.
AWANI Ringkas: Ketelusan boleh elak pembaziran
Ikuti rangkuman berita utama yang menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari di Astro AWANI menerusi AWANI Ringkas.
Pemilik stesen minyak diminta lapor KPDN jika diancam sindiket
Beliau berkata KPDN akan merahsiakan maklumat diterima kerana sedar ada pemilik stesen minyak yang enggan membuat laporan walaupun diancam.
Indeks harga pengeluar Malaysia naik 1.6 peratus
Indeks Harga Pengeluar Malaysia yang mengukur perubahan harga barangan di peringkat pengeluar, meningkat 1.6 peratus pada Mac 2024.
Kadar penerimagunaan 5G hampir 36 peratus, liputan 80.3 peratus - Fahmi
Kadar penerimagunaan 5G di negara ini telah mencecah hampir 36 peratus setakat pertengahan bulan ini, manakala kadar liputan perkhidmatan itu telah mencapai 80.3 peratus pada Februari lepas.
Kontroversi UM: Mahasiswa tuntut penjelasan atau boikot kuliah
Sekumpulan mahasiswa Universiti Malaya yang berang dengan tindakan Institut Pengajian China, Universiti Malaya (UM) menjemput individu pro-Zionis, akhirnya turun berdemonstrasi bagi menyuarakan bantahan dan akan memboikot kuliah pengajian jika tiada reaksi dari pihak pentadbiran UM.
Lima anggota polis disyaki samun berdepan tindakan dalaman
Lima anggota polis antara tujuh individu yang ditahan kerana disyaki terbabit dalam kes samun warga asing membabitkan wang tunai berjumlah RM260,000, berdepan tindakan dalaman antaranya pertukaran jabatan.
JKDM beli 20 anjing pengesan dadah libat kos RM1.9 juta
JKDM dalam proses perolehan 20 ekor anjing pengesan dadah serta tiga unit mesin pengimbas 'backscatter' dalam usaha perangi dadah.
Sultan Selangor berangkat ke majlis bacaan yasin, tahlil di Pangkalan TLDM
Sultan Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah yang juga Kepten Yang Dipertua Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) berkenan berangkat ke Pangkalan TLDM Lumut.