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Teen confesses to smashing into TDF barricade

A 16-year-old boy has handed himself in to police, confessing to smashing through barriers on the Tour de France route in Paris, sparking gunshots from security services hours before the finish of the famed race.

The incident took place early on Sunday at Paris’s iconic Place de la Concorde, where the world’s most famous bike race reaches its climax.

A car crashed through the security barriers several hours before the riders were due to come through and police opened fire on the vehicle as it sped away from a checkpoint.

Police fire at car before TDF arrival
Spat on and insulted, but feeling ‘incredible’

Officials said they believed there was no link to the Tour de France itself.

A bullet-pocked car was later found abandoned nearby.

“Investigations are underway to see if he was at the wheel,” a legal source said.

Another person also came forward claiming to have been in the car when the incident took place. Both were remanded in custody.

And a young woman, believed to have been in the car, checked herself into a hospital in the western Paris suburbs with bullet wounds to the chest.

She was operated on overnight and “her life is not in danger”, said a source close to the investigation.

“The probe will determine if the bullet that hit the young woman came from a police shot,” the source said.

According to witness statements gathered by the police, four people ran away from the car after abandoning it.

In triumphant scenes later on Sunday, British cyclist Chris Froome won his second Tour de France on the rain-lashed Champs Elysees, with Germany’s Andre Greipel clinching a thrilling final sprint.

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