Four French police officers are set on FIRE as thugs pelt their car with petrol bombs during a patrol near Paris

  • Officers were on patrol in Grande Borne estate south of the French capital
  • Their cars were attacked 'from all sides' by thugs hurling Molotov cocktails
  • Attack likely to be linked to the drug gangs who roam the notorious estate

Four French police officers were set on fire after masked thugs pelted their two cars with petrol bombs during a patrol on a notorious housing estate near Paris. 

The horrifying attack took place on the Grande Borne, in the southern Paris suburb of Viry-Chatillon, on Saturday afternoon.

'The cars were parked up on the estate as a part of a surveillance patrol monitoring a surveillance camera near a set of traffic lights' said a police source, who said the violence started just before 3pm.

Four French police officers were set on fire after masked thugs pelted their two cars with petrol bombs during a patrol on a notorious housing estate near Paris. Investigators are pictured at the scene

Four French police officers were set on fire after masked thugs pelted their two cars with petrol bombs during a patrol on a notorious housing estate near Paris. Investigators are pictured at the scene

The horrifying attack took place on the Grande Borne, in the southern Paris suburb of Viry-Chatillon, on Saturday afternoon

The horrifying attack took place on the Grande Borne, in the southern Paris suburb of Viry-Chatillon, on Saturday afternoon

'They were attacked from all sides. Assailants in a group of around a dozen threw Molotov cocktails at the car.

'Two of the officers were very badly burned and rushed to intensive care units. Two others received hospital treatment.

'The other officers hurt managed to call reinforcements who turned up to secure the area.'

The surveillance cameras pointed towards a stretch of road where a lot of robberies have taken place in recent months, said the source.

The attack comes during a State of Emergency put in place across France last year following a series of terrorist attacks by ISIS.

Protests against the government over employment reform has also seen a series of savage attacks on police officers, including their patrol cars being set on fire.

Protests against the government over employment reform has also seen a series of savage attacks on police officers, including their patrol cars being set on fire

Protests against the government over employment reform has also seen a series of savage attacks on police officers, including their patrol cars being set on fire

The latest incident is likely to be linked to the drug gangs who roam the Grande Borne, a housing project that was built in the 1960s and is now officially classed as a 'sensitive security area'

The latest incident is likely to be linked to the drug gangs who roam the Grande Borne, a housing project that was built in the 1960s and is now officially classed as a 'sensitive security area'

The latest incident is likely to be linked to the drug gangs who roam the Grande Borne, a housing project that was built in the 1960s and is now officially classed as a 'sensitive security area'.

Responding to the violence, President Francois Hollande said: 'Everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice so they receive a sentence in-keeping with the severity of their crime.'

He said the Grande Borne attacked was 'unspeakable and intolerable because it endangered the lives of officers whose job was to protect the population'.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls meanwhile said the attack had been 'extremely serious and very cowardly'.

Mr Hollande said the gang would be 'relentlessly pursued and brought to justice. At a time when the security forces are bravely responding to the(terrorist threats facing our country, such intolerable acts call for exemplary sanctions'.

Jean-Marie Vilain, the mayor of the area that covers the Grande Borne, said: 'The next step will be to go inside Grande Borne to put an end to all the drug dealing, because that is really what the cameras interfere with.'

 

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