Chirac thanks men who saved him from bullet

FRENCH president Jacques Chirac today rang four men to thank them for saving him from an assassin's bullet.

Security officials credited the four spectators and police with thwarting the attack by a neo-Nazi who pulled a rifle from a guitar case during the Bastille Day parade in Paris yesterday.

The man fired at least once from a fully loaded rifle as Chirac, riding in an open-top jeep about 50 yards away, was reviewing troops at the start of a pomp-filled military parade to celebrate France’s national holiday.

Cries of alarm sprang out from members of the crowd along the sides of the flag-bedecked Champs-Elysees, near the Arc de Triomphe. At least one spectator grabbed the gun and reportedly turned it upward. Caught by police, the man tried to shoot himself.

Paris police identified the man as 25-year-old Maxime Brunerie, who is a member of “neo-Nazi and hooligan” groups.