Paris police say a car has injured six soldiers, two seriously, in what the local mayor has said was a "disgusting" deliberate act.
A French soldier in front of the Eiffel Tower after Paris was placed under the highest alert status following the November 2015 attacks. Photo: AFP
An urgent police operation is now under way to find the vehicle - reportedly a BMW - and driver involved in the incident in the north-western suburb of Levallois-Perret.
A judicial sources said the Paris prosecutor's counter-terrorism department had opened an investigation.
The local mayor, Patrick Balkany, told BFMTV the attack took place outside a military barracks on the Place de Verdun in Levallois-Perret about 08.15am local time on Wednesday.
Mr Balkany said he had no doubt that the "disgusting" act was deliberate.
Mr Balkany said a vehicle had been waiting in the road for the soldiers to emerge as they came on duty.
"It was a BMW which accelerated very quickly the moment they came out."
The barracks are reportedly about 200m from the local town hall.
The injured soldiers were being treated at the Percy military hospital in Clamart, but their precise condition had not yet been made public.
A police hunt was under way for the car and its driver.
Police have been more cautious about assigning a motive, saying only that the driver appeared to have acted deliberately.
France has been under a state of emergency since November 2015.
On 13 November that year, 130 people were killed in a night of carnage in Paris, and more than 100 more have been killed in jihadist attacks since.
They include a string of assaults on the heavily-armed security forces who now dot the streets of the capital - the last only four days ago.
- BBC / Reuters
