Car rams police van in Paris' driver dead

A man has deliberately rammed a car filled with weapons and explosives into a police van as it drove in a convoy down Paris's Champs Elysees avenue said French officials on Monday.

Police said the man, who was known to French security services, died in the incident. No body was hurt but it was unclear how the man whose identity has not been ascertained died. 

The Paris prosecutor's counter-terrorism unit said it had opened an investigation.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the car had been carrying weapons and explosives. 

"This once again shows that the threat level in France is extremely high," Collomb told journalists near the scene.

France has been on high security alert following a series of Islamist terrorists attacks, including the shooting of a policeman in an Islamic State-claimed attack on a police bus on the Champs Elysees, one of the world's most famous thoroughfares, in April.