Teenage youth crashes car into security barriers at Tour de France

Updated on: 28 July,2015 08:30 AM IST |
AFP |

16-year-old youth owns up while another person claimed to be in the car; also, a young woman checked into hospital with bullet marks

Paris: A 16-year-old youth handed himself in to police yesterday confessing to smashing through barriers on the Tour de France route in Paris, sparking gunshots from security services hours before the finish of the famed race.

The incident took place early Sunday on Paris’ iconic Place de la Concorde, where the world’s most famous bike race reaches its climax. A car crashed through the security barriers several hours before the riders were due to come through and police opened fire on the vehicle as it sped away from a checkpoint.

Officials said they believed there was no link to the Tour de France itself. A bullet-pocked car was later found abandoned nearby. “Investigations are underway to see if he was at the wheel,” a legal source told AFP.

Another person has also come forward also claiming to have been in the car when the incident took place. Both have been remanded in custody.

And a young woman, believed to have been in the car, checked herself into a hospital in the western Paris suburbs with bullet wounds to the chest. She was operated on overnight and “her life is not in danger,” said a source close to the investigation. “The probe will determine if the bullet that hit the young woman came from a police shot,” said this source.

According to witness statements gathered by the police, four people ran away from the car after abandoning it. In triumphant scenes later Sunday, British cyclist Chris Froome won his second Tour de France title.