Man without driving licence who fled traffic accident arrested after inadvertently climbing into France’s spy agency HQ

Driver unaware he was in grounds of General Directorate of External Security

Man arrested after inadvertently climbing into France's spy headquarters (Getty Images)

A man without a driving licence who fled a traffic accident attempted to hide in the headquarters of France’s spy agency, according to local media.

The driver was involved in a car crash on a Paris ring road on Friday, before climbing a fence several metres high to escape the scene, Le Parisien newspaper reported.

Apparently unaware he was in the grounds of the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), the man was immediately arrested.

The agency’s headquarters, on Boulevard Mortier in northeastern Paris, is monitored closely and is considered so sensitive it is blurred out on Google Street View.

He was detained at a police station in the nineteenth arrondissement for "unauthorised entry into a protected site of the national gendarmerie and driving without a permit”.

Google Maps blurs out General Directorate of External Security headquarters (Google Maps)

According to the newspaper, the man told the police he did not know he had broken into DGSE’s headquarters.

The arrest echoes a similar incident in 2016, in which a man was caught climbing over the fence surrounding Buckingham Palace.

The 41-year-old spend 10 minutes “admiring” the gardens before being caught by armed police. He was sentenced to four months for trespassing.