A motorist accused of deliberately running over a cyclist in a Paris road rage incident has been formally put under investigation for murder and remanded in custody. The 52-year-old SUV driver, named only as Ariel M, is accused of deliberately targeting the cyclist, who was named by the Paris public prosecutor’s office as Paul Varry, 27. The driver appeared before an examining magistrate on Friday morning after 48 hours in custody and was accused of “culpable homicide”. The incident happened at 5.45pm on Tuesday on the Boulevard Malesherbes in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The driver’s teenage daughter was in the car at the time. The prosecutor’s office said the victim was returning from work on Wednesday when the motorist, trying to pass traffic, drove 200m along the cycle lane and ran over Varry’s foot. Varry “banged on the bonnet to alert the driver, who initially backed off freeing his foot,” it said. “He (Varry) dropped his bike and moved to the front left of the car showing his displeasure. The driver then turned his wheels towards the pedestrian and drove forward in his direction,” it added. An autopsy on the cyclist confirmed the vehicle had run over him. According to French reports, the SUV driver told police a “clumsy movement” had led to the cyclist’s death. Jeanne d’Hauteserre, the mayor of the 8th arrondissement, described the incident as “extraordinarily violent”, adding that when she arrived at the scene some time afterwards witnesses were “still on the pavement in shock”. The Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who has spearheaded a successful programme to radically reduce car traffic and increase cycling in the capital, said it was “unacceptable in this day and age for someone to die on a bicycle in Paris”. Ian Brossat, a former Paris councillor and now a senator representing the French Communist party, called for SUVs to be banned in Paris. “This is not the first incident of its kind, and the dangerous nature of SUVs has already been pointed out on several occasions. We owe it to this young man to realise the scale of the problem and draw all the consequences,” Brossat told the Nouvel Obs. Paris city council has turned Paris into one of the world’s most bike-friendly cities, with hundreds of kilometres of new cycle paths opened in recent years. Many motorists, however, resent the changes, which have radically reduced the space available for cars on many routes. In an attempt to limit personal car use and vehicle pollution, swathes of the city have been pedestrianised and parking charges increased.