A SOLDIER GUARDING a mosque in France shot and wounded a driver who rammed him with a car on Friday, as the country remains on high alert after the Paris attacks, local authorities said.
Police said the driver deliberately drove his Peugeot into the soldier in the southeastern city of Valence.
The soldier is among thousands protecting sensitive sites around the nation after the deadly jihadist assaults in Paris in 2015.
The impact of the car left the soldier with injuries to his knee and shin.
Local authorities said the driver was shot in the arm and the leg and was seriously wounded. A stray bullet hit a passerby in the calf.
Police said the driver’s motive remained unclear.
Attacks in Paris on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket killed 17 people in January 2015, with a series of coordinated shootings and bombings in the city in November leaving 130 people dead.
This incident follows a scaling up of security across Europe prior to last night’s New Year’s celebrations.
A terror alert had been in place in Munich over the anticipation of a suicide bomb attack.
Firework displays were called off in both Brussels and Paris.
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