Quai Voltaire in central Paris, scene of the fatal confrontation.

The driver of a double-decker Paris tourist bus has been charged with murder and placed under arrest over a dispute in the French capital in which the driver of another vehicle lost his life.

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The 46-year-old suspect has been charged with voluntary homicide and put into provisional detention.

The incident took place on Wednesday on the Quai Voltaire, a road embankment on the opposite side of the River Seine from the Louvre museum.

A verbal clash between the driver of the hop-on-hop-off City Sightseeing Paris bus, which offers tours round the capital, and the car driver degenerated into a physical fight.

Initial investigations suggest that the double-decker bus collided with the car and that the car driver got out of his vehicle.

The tone rapidly escalated and the two came to blows.

Subsequently, "the bus started up and crushed the car driver against another bus," a source close to the investigation said.

The victim died at the scene.

While being charged does not automatically trigger a trial under French law, it does mean prosecutors believe there is strong evidence of wrongdoing.

The office of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Thursday that City Sightseeing Paris had no authorisation to operate in the capital.

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