
A driver with a gun has died after ramming a police van on the Champs-Élysées in a car filled with weapons and a gas bomb.

His car burst into flames moments after impact having deliberately aimed at a line of police vans with a boot full of Kalashnikov rifles, handguns and gas bottles.

A police officer was videoed stripping clothes from the unconscious assailant to check for a suicide bomb as the assailant, who was a known extremist in France, lay dying in the street.

Witnesses in the capital said he heard shots being fired and smoke coming from the silver Renault Megane which was used by the 31-year-old perpetrator in what is being considered an attempted suicide attack, though nobody was injured.

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Police standing by as the perpetrator lies face down in the dusty sidewalk after having his clothes ripped from him

The driver sprawled on the pavement with a bomb disposal robot nearby after a police officer ripped his clothes from him

The car left abandoned on the world-famous avenue and a red canister can be seen in the middle of the road which is teeming with police officers

The 31-year-old extremist who was known to French authorities is seen here being pulled from the burning vehicles by officers

The car being searched by a member of the bomb disposal team who is seen approaching the Renault Megane with a mask

A witness in the capital said he heard shots being fired and smoke coming from one of the vehicles, thought to be this Renault Megane

French anti-terrorism prosecutors opened an inquiry today after a suspected suicide attacker was seen targeting a line of police vans which were travelling up the Champs Elysee towards the Arc de Triomphe.

'There was a sudden impact, and then a fireball,' said an investigating source. 'A gas bomb was in the car.

TERROR ATTACK THAT HAVE ROCKED PARIS AND GREAT BRITAIN The attack Monday was the latest of a string in Paris and London. Earlier Monday, a van ploughed into a crowd of Muslims near a London mosque, leaving one person dead and injuring 10 others. It was the second terror attack this month in the British capital. Two weeks ago jihadists used a van and knives to crush and stab to death eight people enjoying a night out in the British capital. Three of the victims were French. France has been consistently targeted by jihadists and remains under a state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 attacks in Paris, when Islamic State jihadists killed 130 people in a night of carnage at venues across the city. Previous major attacks targeted the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in January 2015. In July last year, a radicalised Tunisian man killed down 86 people as he rammed a truck through a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks in the Riviera city of Nice. Advertisement

'The man was very badly injured, and then pulled out of his damaged vehicle. He was badly injured in the collision and was taken away.

'He did not cause any injuries, but the collision was a deliberate act.'

An Interior Ministry source meanwhile said that the attacker 'is likely to have died following the attack'.

He added that 'numerous weapons were found in his car boot'.

The specialist anti-terrorism officers confirmed they had opened an inquiry into the kamikaze attack.

France's Interior Minister Gerard Collomb called the incident an attempted attack and said: 'Security forces have been targeted in France once again'.

The weapons and explosives found in the vehicle 'could potentially blow this car up,' he added.

Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said bomb disposal experts were on the scene to 'ensure the vehicle poses no further danger'.

Video showed orange smoke pouring from the car after the impact.

No police or bystanders were injured in the incident near the Grand Palais exhibition hall.

Police have closed two of the Metro stations on the Champs-Elysees, the world-renowned avenue lined with shops and cinemas that is a major tourist draw in the French capital.

The incident came just two months after a policeman was shot and killed on the avenue, three days before the first round of France's presidential election.

A note praising the Islamic State group was found next to the body of the gunman, Karim Cheurfi, in that incident.

Police later found other weapons in Cheurfi's car including a shotgun and knives.

On June 7, a hammer-wielding Algerian man was shot and wounded by police after he struck an officer on the head in front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, shouting it was in revenge 'for Syria'.

He had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video found at his home.

Paris police say a security operation is underway in the shopping district where there were reports of a car being abandoned on the world-famous avenue which has been cordoned off

French police secure the area on the Champs Elysees after the car burst into flames in the French capital

French policemen secure the area on the Champs Elysees avenue after an incident in Paris

It is understood the car crashed into a police van and that there were no casualties as video footage emerged of the aftermath.

People were seen fleeing the area as police officers armed with machine guns frantically cleared the tourist hotspot.

A witness, who was just 20 metres from the incident, said: 'Large bangs followed by what sounded like shots fired near a car with smoke coming out of it on Champs Elysees.'

He added that one person was on the ground and that everyone in the area was told to run.

A journalist who happened to be in the area at the time said the man deliberately crashed his car into the van causing his vehicle to be set alight.

Officers leapt into action and broke the car window to drag him from the flames.

It comes months after 37-year-old Xavier Jugele was murdered when an ISIS-inspired gunman opened fire with an assault rifle on a police van parked on the most famous avenue in the French capital.

Two other officers were wounded.

France remains under a state of emergency after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks in the country.