Man fleeing cops runs into spy HQ

Fleeing the police after a car crash in Paris, a man who had been driving without a licence took the ultimate wrong turn -- and ended up taking refuge inside the headquarters of France's spy agency.

According to a police source, the hapless driver fled after being involved in a crash on Paris's peripherique ring road on Friday, scaling a fence several metres (feet) high to get off the busy artery.

What he didn't realise was that he had unwittingly climbed into the grounds of the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), according to the Parisien newspaper which first reported the story.

He was immediately picked up and arrested.

He was placed in custody at the police station of the nineteenth arrondissement of Paris for "unauthorized entry into a site protected by the National Gendarmerie and driving without a driving license."

The man told the police that he did not know that he had broken into the DGSE headquarters.

Located on Boulevard Mortier in northeastern Paris, the ultra-secure site was featured in acclaimed French TV spy thriller "Le Bureau des Legendes", which won international acclaim under the English title "The Bureau."