UPDATE - Car crashes into gendarme van in Paris

UPDATES WITH STATEMENTS FROM INTERIOR MINISTER, MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON, HEADLINE CHANGED

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - A car crashed into a gendarme van on the famous Champs-Elysees boulevard in a suspected terror attack in the capital on Monday, according to Interior Ministry.

Paris police prefecture tweeted an operation was underway and urged people to avoid the area which remains cordoned off.

"Situation under control, no injuries among the police and the public," police said later.

Anti-terrorist prosecutors launched a probe into the incident which Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said was being treated as a "terrorist attack".

Collomb said the driver, who was carrying several weapons and ammunition in his car, had been killed.

"This shows again that the level of terrorist threat is still extremely high in France," the minister told reporters at the scene.

Earlier, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the suspect deliberately drove his car -- a Renault Megane -- into the military van, which was on move at the time, and then he began shooting at around 3.40 p.m. local time (1340 GMT).

The gendarmes then fired back before the car burst into flames and exploded; at least one gas cylinder was said to be aboard the car used by the assailant.

French broadcaster BFMTV said the suspect was a 33-year-old man, who was known to the intelligence services.

A similar incident took place in the famous boulevard last April, when a man drove into a police van and shot one police officer dead.

France is still under a state of emergency imposed after the deadly November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris.