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Thirteen people, including ten French police officers, were injured and several cars damaged on Saturday after a driver refused to stop at the request of police in Paris, sparking an early morning chase through the south of the French capital, authorities said.
The car chase spanning several kilometres ended with the driver losing control of his car and smashing into a traffic light, with three pursuing police vehicles hitting his vehicle, prosecutors said.
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During a police check at around 5:45am in the 14th district in southern Paris, the driver refused to comply with police orders to stop, the police prefecture said. Three police cars gave chase.
Prosecutors said the driver had run a red light. “Three police vehicles then set off in pursuit of the vehicle for several kilometres,” the public prosecutor’s office said.
Prosecutors said they suspected the driver of being intoxicated at the time of the chase. The driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a traffic light, prosecutors said.
“The three pursuing police vehicles then crashed into his vehicle,” added the Paris prosecutor’s office.
As a result of the accident in the 15th district, also in the south of the French capital, ten police officers received light injuries and were hospitalised, the prefecture said in a statement.
“The driver and two passengers were arrested and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries,” the statement said.
The UNSA-Police union posted a picture of the aftermath of the accident, with one police vehicle sitting on top of a badly damaged black car.
“A chilling image that testifies to the violence of the accident that occurred in Paris,” the union said on X.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez paid tribute to “all the police officers mobilised during this intervention”.