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A BMW drove into two mounted officers and proceeded to crush one of their vehicles against another police car in Colombes, just northwest of Paris, on Monday afternoon.
Photos of the scene quickly surfaced on social media.
"I have never seen such a thing. It's... horrible, appalling," Colombes mayor Nicole Goueta told reporters.
One of the officers is reportedly in a critical condition, having suffered several fractures. He was transported to a hospital in nearby Clichy, where he was put on a ventilator and placed in a medically induced coma pending surgery, according to news outlet Actu17.
Police sources told local media that the driver of the BMW has been arrested, and that he has admitted deliberately ramming the officers.
A letter explaining the driver's actions was reportedly found inside the BMW. While the driver's motive has not yet been disclosed, police are examining the possibility that the ramming was an act of terrorism.
Numerous French media outlets have also reported that a knife was found in the car, and have identified the driver as a local resident aged 29 or 30. According to Le Parisien, he told the Hauts-de-Seine authorities that he had "just seen a video about Palestine" and wanted to attack police.
Comment: Right, cause that's exactly what watching a video about Palestinians' plight makes you do - get in your Beemer and go postal on the nearest cops.
The suspect also told police he "did it for ISIS" - referring to the terrorist group Islamic State - Le Parisien reported citing police sources, but there has been no official confirmation of that.
Comment: A number of similarly strange, seemingly random, and often rather fruitless, attacks in Europe have occurred recently, the stories below are from just this year:
- Botched 'Islamist attack': Car driven into Barcelona airport, two arrested
- Knife wielding man shot dead by police in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on the same day of a similar incident in France
- French police shoot man wielding knife & yelling 'Allahu Akbar'- follows similar incident 2 days earlier
And from November last year: Convenient London Bridge Terrorist Attack Occurs Two Weeks Before General Election: UPDATES