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Man arrested after soldiers rammed by car in Paris suburb

A man was arrested by police after a shootout on a motorway near Calais on Wednesday when the car he was driving matched the description of that which in the early morning had deliberately rammed six soldiers close to barracks in the Paris suburb of  Levallois-Perret, leaving three of them seriously injured.

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French police hunting a man who rammed a car into a group of soldiers in Paris early Wednesday morning have arrested a suspect in the case, reports CNN.

The man was shot and wounded as he was being apprehended on a highway, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

France's counter-terror unit is investigating the attack, in a suburb of northwest Paris, which left six soldiers injured, three seriously, according to Paris police. The soldiers' injuries are not life threatening.

Police had been searching for a BMW car and its driver who rammed into a group of soldiers outside a barracks at the Place de Verdun in Levallois-Perret around 8:00 a.m. local time.

France's Minister of the Interior Gerard Collomb said the attack was a "deliberate act."

"The car accelerated towards the soldiers for five meters in order to hit them," he told reporters. "We do not believe this could be an accident."

Mayor of Levallois-Perret, Patrick Balkany, told BFMTV that the car was "pre-positioned" in a small alleyway, waiting for troops from the 35th Infantry Regiment to come out of the building.

The group of soldiers are part of France's Operation Sentinel, set up in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in January 2015.

Levallois-Perret - a quiet and affluent neighborhood - is home to the headquarters of the DCRI, France's counter intelligence agency.

One eyewitness, who gave her name as Zakia, told BFMTV that she was awoken by a "boom" before running to her balcony.

Read more of this report from CNN.