A heavily-armed driver "deliberately" rammed a police van at the Champs-Elysées roundabout in Paris on Monday, just 200 yards form the presidential palace where Emmanuel Macron resides.

The vehicle, a white Renault Mégane, struck a blue police van as it drove down the road in the central Parisian district at around 3.40pm, and burst into flames. Yellow smoke then billowed from the vehicle as police moved in to neutralise the driver.

According to BFMTV, he jumped out of the car, weapon in hand, but then collapsed and died from blast injuries.

Police are treating the incident as a terror attack after finding a Kalashnikov, handguns, "numerous" gun cartridges and at least one gas canister inside the vehicle, a security source told AFP.

The driver - reportedly a 31-year old known to intelligence and on a security watch list - died in the "attempted attack", according to the French interior minister, Gerard Collomb.