PARIS (AP) — Paris police say that a gunman killed one police officer and wounded another before being killed himself in an attack on the Champs-Elysees shopping district.
French prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation into the attack.Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station Thursday night at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said counterterrorism investigators are involved in the probe into the Thursday attack that left a police officer and the attacker dead.
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet says that police officers killed the attacker. He said one police officer was killed and two others were seriously injured and hospitalized.
Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert says unidentified gunman appeared to be alone when he allegedly opened fire on a police vehicle.
French President Francois Hollande has scheduled an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve following the shootings.
Emergency vehicles blocked the wide avenue that cuts across central Paris between the Arc de Triomphe and the Tuileries Gardens, normally packed with cars and tourists.
Subway stations in the area were closed off on Thursday night while police secure the scene.
Security forces are more widespread in Paris since deadly Islamic extremist attacks in recent years, and France remains under a state of emergency.
Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television that a man came out of a car and opened fire on a police vehicle.
Brandet says the police officers were “deliberately” targeted.
He says police are securing the area but there is “no other police operation underway” in the popular area.
Brandet says it’s too early to say whether the attacker might have had an accomplice, and said authorities are studying multiple potential motives.
Speaking in Washington during a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, U.S. President Donald Trump said the shooting in Paris “looks like another terrorist attack” and sent condolences to France.
Trump is also offering condolences from the U.S. to the people of France.
He calls the attack a “terrible thing” and says “it never ends.” He says people must be strong and vigilant.
The attack came three days before the first round of France’s tense presidential election. Security is high around the vote after France has been attacked in recent years.
The incident recalled two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris, one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.
A witness identified only as Ines told French television station BFM that she heard a shooting and saw a man’s body on the ground before police quickly evacuated the area where she works in a shop.
A French television station hosting a televised event with the 11 candidates running for president briefly interrupted its broadcast to report the shootings.
None of the candidates immediately commented.
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