PARIS -- Once again, some 150,000 people lined the Champs Elysees on July 14 to watch the Bastille Day parade. At noon, President Jacques Chirac received 6,000 guests at the traditional party held in the palace gardens. At 1 p.m., as he has always done since his first election in 1995, he gave an interview to three well-known TV journalists.

At that time nobody mentioned the attempt three hours earlier by Maxime Brunerie, a 25-year-old student, to kill the president with a 22-caliber rifle he had hidden in a guitar case. Brunerie approached the automobile in which Chirac was standing and fired at him. Luckily, spectators noticed what he was doing and took action, causing him to miss. Police then rapidly overpowered the would-be murderer and prevented him from committing suicide.

A worshipper of Hitler, Brunerie belonged to several extreme-rightist organizations, including one founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen's former lieutenant, Bruno Megret. Although Brunerie had posted a message on the Net stating that on July 14 he would be the "man of the day in the media" and had told some friends he intended to murder the president, no one had taken him seriously. It is believed Brunerie, who is now undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, acted alone.