Six French soldiers have been injured after a car slammed into them in Paris before speeding away in a suspected terror attack.
Two of the soldiers have been seriously wounded while the others sustained light injuries, the Paris Police Authority said.
Patrick Balkany, the mayor of the Levallois-Perret commune, said a BMW parked in an alley drove into the soldiers as they left their barracks to go on patrol duty.
A major police operation has been launched in search of the BMW and its driver.
"Without any doubt, it was a deliberate act," Mr Balkany told broadcaster BFM TV.
He went on to denounce the "intolerable attack" on the military.
"It all happened very quickly. The vehicle did not stop. It hurtled at them... it accelerated rapidly," he said.
The soldiers were rushed to hospital, he added.
One official said the attacker struck in the Place de Verdun just as a group of soldiers emerged from the building to board vehicles for a new shift.
French counter-terrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation into the attack.
No one has been specifically named in the investigation yet, but it is aimed at pursuing perpetrators on charges of attempted murder of security forces in connection with a terrorist enterprise, the prosecutor's office said.
The move means authorities believe the attack was deliberate and planned with a terrorist motive.
France remains in a state of emergency following a string of terror attacks in which Islamist militants or Islamist-inspired attackers have killed more than 230 people over the past two years.
Operation Sentinel has seen soldiers regularly patrol the streets since the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
The attack comes four days after a teenager with psychiatric problems tried to attack security forces guarding the Eiffel Tower.
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