A car has struck a group of soldiers in Paris, injuring six, two seriously, police say.

An urgent police operation is now under way to find the vehicle – reportedly a BMW – and driver involved in the incident in the north-western suburb of Levallois-Perret.

The Paris prosecutor says the anti-terror unit is investigating what happened. France has been under a state of emergency since November 2015.

On 13 November, 130 people were killed in a night of carnage in Paris, and more than 100 more have been killed in jihadist attacks since. They include a string of assaults on the heavily armed security forces who now dot the streets of the capital – the last only four days ago.

While the hunt for the perpetrator continues, the Paris prosecutors’ office said its anti-terrorism unit was looking into « attempted killings… in relation to a terrorist undertaking ». Wednesday’s attack at about 08:15 local time (06:15 GMT) took place outside a military barracks on the Place de Verdun in Levallois-Perret, the local mayor, Patrick Balkany, told BFMTV. He said he had no doubt that the « disgusting » act was deliberate.

He said a vehicle had been waiting in the road for the soldiers to emerge as they came on duty. « It was a BMW which accelerated very quickly the moment they came out. »

A resident in a nearby block of flats, Jean-Claude Veillant, told reporters he saw part of the attack. « I heard a loud noise, the sound of scraping metal. Shortly after, I saw one of the badly wounded lying in front of the Vigipirate [army patrol] vehicle and another one behind it receiving treatment, » he said.

The injured soldiers are being treated at the Percy military hospital in Clamart, but their precise condition has not been made public.

Last Saturday, a young man tried to force his way into the Eiffel Tower with a knife, shouting « Allahu Akbar » (God is Greatest). A source said he told investigators he wanted to kill a soldier.

In June, police shot a man who attacked an officer with a hammer outside the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. In April, an attacker shot dead a policeman on the Champs-Elysees. The assailant, later named as convicted criminal Karim Cheurfi, was shot dead by security forces. In February, a man armed with a machete attacked a security patrol at Paris’s Louvre Museum.