Paris: A car burst into flames after it crashed into a police van on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Monday, police and investigators said, adding that the driver was armed and it appeared to be a "deliberate" act.
Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said police had pulled the driver out of the flaming vehicle and he was "very likely dead."
Police had said earlier that the driver of the Renault Megane was "seriously injured" and "on the ground... unconscious."
No police or bystanders were injured in the incident near the Grand Palais exhibition hall.
"Apparently, it's a deliberate act," a source close to the investigation said.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation.
Police have closed two of the metro stations on the Champs-Elysees, a major tourist draw in the French capital.
A note praising the Islamic State group was found next to the body of the gunman, Karim Cheurfi, in that incident.
The incident on Monday was the latest in a string of attacks in London and Paris.
Two weeks ago jihadists used a van and knives to crush and kill eight people enjoying a night out in the British capital. Three of the victims were French.
Four days later, a hammer-wielding Algerian man was shot and wounded by police after he struck an officer on the head in front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
In London on Monday, a van ploughed into a crowd of Muslims near a London mosque early on Monday, leaving one person dead and injuring 10 others in the second terror attack this month in the British capital.
France is still under a state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 attacks in Paris, when Islamic State jihadists killed 130 people in a night of carnage at venues across the city.
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