Would-be assassin fires shot as French president passes

PARIS -- A man described as an emotionally disturbed neo-Nazi allegedly tried to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday, pulling a rifle from a guitar case and firing a shot before being wrestled to the ground during a Bastille Day parade.

The man fired as Chirac rode in an open-top jeep 130 feet to 160 feet away while reviewing troops at the start of a pomp-filled military parade to celebrate Bastille Day, France's national holiday. There were no reported injuries.

As the gunman pulled a fully loaded .22-caliber rifle out of a brown guitar case, the crowd along the tree-lined edge of the Champs-Elysees began shouting, alerting police who rushed in and tackled him, apparently with the help of spectators. A government official said the gunman tried to shoot himself after the attack.

"I saw a guy with a gun," said a witness, Mohamed Chelali, who told LCI television that he and other members of the crowd helped subdue the man.

Another man knocked the rifle out of the attacker's hand and "I threw myself forward, grabbed the gun and then everyone started calling: 'Police, police,"' Chelali said. "They took a long time to come, maybe two to three minutes."

Spectator plays role

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told a news conference he had congratulated both the police and a "courageous spectator" who thwarted the attack.

It was not immediately clear if the shot came near Chirac or if it went into the air as police converged on the gunman.

Paris police said that the man, whom they did not identify, was 25 years old and a member of "neo-Nazi and hooligan" groups.

An officer close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gunman was linked to a far-right student group, the Groupe Union Defense, and has a history of psychiatric problems. Police later transferred the man to a psychiatric facility, French television and radio networks said.

"It was an assassination attempt," said a government minister, Patrick Devedjian. "He admitted he wanted to kill the president." Devedjian, who is under the interior minister, said the gunman tried to shoot himself while being overcome.

Sarkozy, the interior minister, said the rifle was bought last week.

The man's motives for attacking Chirac were not immediately known. Chirac crushed his far-right opponent, National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the second round of France's presidential election in May, winning 82 percent of the vote and a second term.

Devedjian said the gunman was from "the extreme, extreme right, even further right than the National Front."

Attack condemned

Le Pen denied any connection to the gunman and condemned "all assassination attempts aimed at the representative of the state."