Prosecutors in Paris have opened a murder investigation after the driver of a luxury SUV reportedly ran over a cyclist, crushing him to death, after a heated roadside argument in the centre of the capital.
“Initial witness statements indicate that the movement of the car towards the cyclist was deliberate on the part of the driver,” the prosecutor’s office told BFM-TV on Wednesday. The 52-year-old driver was arrested at the scene on Tuesday evening.
The 27-year-old victim, a member of a Paris cycling association, went into cardiac-respiratory arrest after the Mercedes reportedly drove over him near La Madeleine church in the early evening rush-hour and could not be saved by emergency responders.
Witnesses told Le Parisien newspaper the two men were having a furious row at the side of the busy boulevard Malesherbes, near Place de la Madeleine, after the Mercedes cut across the cyclist, who was on a marked but unprotected cycle lane.
The cyclist, who was knocked off his bike, banged on the car’s bonnet and argued with the driver before the two men continued on their separate ways. Soon after, eight witnesses reportedly said, the SUV appeared to head straight for the cyclist.
The witnesses said the car appeared to reverse after hitting the cyclist for a second time before moving forward again, over the man’s body. The driver’s teenage daughter was also in the car at the time, witnesses said.
Initial alcohol and drugs tests were negative and the man’s driving licence was in order, BFM-TV said, citing police sources.
Jeanne d’Hauteserre, the mayor of the 8th arrondissement, where the incident happened, described it as “extraordinarily violent”, adding that when she arrived at the scene some time afterward witnesses were “still on the pavement in shock”.
The Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who has spearheaded a successful programme to radically reduce car traffic and increase cycling in the capital, said it was “unacceptable in this day and age for someone to die on a bicycle in Paris”.
A Paris deputy mayor, David Belliard, said on X: What happened last night is horrifying … This young man is a new victim of road violence. Cars can drive you mad. Cars kill. Cyclists and pedestrians are their first victims.”
Paris en selle (Paris in the Saddle), the organisation of which the cyclist was a member, called for a commemorative gathering on the square on Wednesday evening, asking people to “lay a flower or a candle” in his memory.
Marion Soulet, a spokesperson, said cyclists were “all vulnerable road users, like pedestrians. We don’t have steel bodywork to protect us. There is always lots of tension. Some of our members have shocking stories to relate.”
The city council’s efforts have helped turn Paris into one of the world’s top dozen or so most bike-friendly cities, with hundreds of kilometres of new cycle paths opened in recent years particularly since the Covid pandemic lockdown.
Many motorists, however, resent the changes, which have radically reduced the space available for cars on many thoroughfares and been accompanied by other steps to cut car use such as increased inner-city parking fees.
