French police detained the ex-wife, father, brother and sister-in-law of the man behind Monday’s attack at Paris’ Champs-Elysees.
The family members were taken into custody after being questioned by police at their family home, according to judicial sources.
Adam D. drove a white Renault Megane into a Gendarmerie van on the busy Champs-Elysees just before 4 pm local time (1400 UTC) on Monday. The French Interior Ministry said it was a deliberate attack and that the car was laden with explosives.
The 31-year-old Parisian perpetrator, who had been on a terror watch-list as an Islamist extremist, died in the attack.
“This car contained a certain number of weapons, and explosives that could have been used to blow up the car,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said, adding that the incident “shows once again that the threat level in France is extremely high.”
Collomb said the assailant’s car hit the leading vehicle in a convoy of police vans as they headed down the Champs-Elysees, near the Grand Palais exhibition hall.
News agency AFP reported that a Kalashnikov rifle, handguns and gas bottles were found in the car, citing police sources.
The attack happened close to the Elysee Palace, where President Emmanuel Macron was due to receive King Abdallah of Jordan a few hours later.
French police cordoned off Paris’ iconic Champs-Elysees avenue on Monday afternoon and warned people not to approach the area, and two subway stations in the area were closed.
France has been under a state of emergency following a string of terror attacks that started in 2015. Collomb has said he will present a bill at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday to extend the state of emergency from July 15, its current expiration date, to November 1, adding that the current situation in France showed a new security law was “needed” and the measure would “maintain a high security level” beyond the end of the state of emergency.
