Police in Paris discovered a Quran along with texts in Arabic in a car which was used to ram a police vehicle twice before the suspects fled on foot.
The attacks on the Paris police van occurred on Wednesday at around midnight on the Avenue de la Porte d’Aubervilliers in the northern part of the city bordering the 18th and 19th arrondissements, BFMTV reports.
Initially, the men in the car were asked to slow down as they were speeding. Following the warning, the car rammed the police van and sped away with the police in pursuit. When the vehicle was stopped by traffic, the driver attempted to ram the police van a second time and then the four occupants got out and ran, abandoning the car.
Police searched the car finding a copy of the Quran inside along with Arabic texts and noted that the vehicle had not been reported stolen at the time. Shortly after, a bomb squad team was dispatched to the scene to search the car for any potential explosives but none were found, according to investigators.
While no police were injured in the encounter, Paris has been on edge for years due to radical Islamic extremist attacks against police officers and members of the military.
Last year during the first round of the presidential elections, a police officer was killed by an Islamist terrorist on the Champs Elysees who opened fire on several officers while the presidential candidates were engaged in a televised debate.
Following the second round of the election another Islamic extremist attacked police outside the Notre Dame cathedral with a hammer while yelling, “this is for Syria!” before being shot.
The Algerian attacker was later identified as 40-year-old Farid Ikken who had previously won a European Union “Journalist Prize Against Discrimination” award for his pro-migrant articles while working as a journalist in Syria.