This photo taken on October 15, 2024 at the corner of Boulevard Malesherbes and rue Boissy d'Anglas near The Madeleine church shows first responders and police at the scene after a cyclist was run over by a SUV in Paris. (Photo by Veronique Lagarde / AFP)
Paris: French prosecutors said Wednesday they had opened a murder probe after a motorist ran over a cyclist following an altercation in the heart of Paris, as tensions rise in the battle for street space in the congested capital.
Witnesses said the driver, 52, appeared to deliberately target the cyclist who died at the scene near the Madeleine in the capital's wealthy 8th district on Tuesday.
According to daily Le Parisien, quoting witnesses, the driver at the wheel of a SUV hit the cyclist with his car, and then drove over him, crushing his body under the heavy vehicle.
The cyclist, 27, went into cardiac-respiratory arrest. Efforts by emergency services rushing to the scene to save him failed.
"It was a bloodbath," said Yoann, who was among the first people to try to assist the cyclist, according to Le Parisien.
The driver, whose teenage daughter was also in the car, was arrested on the spot.
Earlier, the motorist and the cyclist were seen having an angry dispute by the side of the road, and then appeared to continue their separate journeys before the SUV drove straight at the cyclist.
Police have been tasked with probing the incident for murder.
