MOSCOW, June 25 (RAPSI) - French film star Gerard Depardieu and his camera crew have been slightly injured in a car accident, a police source told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

The accident involving Depardieu took place in Moscow on June 23, Izvestia daily reported earlier. The vehicle, with police permission, was making an illegal turn when it was hit by a taxi driving through a red light. Six people in Depardieu's vehicle received bruises.

"Depardieu's Mercedes minivan collided with a Skoda driven by one of the local taxi companies. Everyone involved received minor injuries," the police source said.

The Moscow Interior Department confirmed the news but refused to give any details about the people involved. "According to preliminary information, the taxi drove through a red light," a spokesperson said. Traffic police have reportedly established that the taxi driver had been banned from driving until 2016 for refusing to pass an alcohol test.

The police are investigating how someone banned from driving could have been hired by a taxi company.

Depardieu said in late 2012 that he had decided to renounce his French citizenship ahead of the government's planned implementation of a 75 percent tax rate for the wealthy. In January 2013, he obtained a Russian passport, however, preserving his French citizenship as well. He later obtained permanent residence registration in Saransk, the capital of the Russian region of Mordovia.