Attacker injures a police officer in central Paris

A man was shot and seriously wounded after attacking a police officer with a knife near the famed Champs-Elysees avenue in Olympic host city Paris on Thursday evening, a police source said.

The incident took place as Paris is preparing to host the Olympic Games in the French capital from July 26.

The assailant died after receiveing life-threatening injuries when he was shot by another officer, according to the police source.

The man had been turned away from a Louis Vuitton boutique, which had requested police to intervene.

“At the sight of the police, the man fled with a knife in his hand, then turned around and wounded a policeman in the ear,” said another police source, without specifying the seriousness of the officer’s injury.

Near the scene of the attack not far from the Champs-Elysees avenue, a bomb disposal truck and at least four gendarmerie and four police trucks were parked. Crime tape encircled the entire area.

“A police officer was the victim of an attack in the eighth arrondissement of Paris while responding to a call from officers securing a store,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on X.

“The perpetrator was immediately neutralized by police officers providing security,” he added.

Jeanne d’Hauteserre, the mayor of the eighth arrondissement, said that the police tried to catch a pickpocket, adding that he “pulled out a knife and wounded a policeman in the arm.”

“The policeman defended his colleague and shot him in the stomach”, she added.

She said that the perpetrator had “apparently just been resuscitated and taken to hospital.”

France is on high alert ahead of the Games, having been the victim of numerous terror attacks in recent years.

On Wednesday evening, a motorist ploughed a car into a cafe terrace in northern Paris, killing one person and seriously injuring several others.

On Monday, a soldier was stabbed in the back by a 40-year-old man at a major train station in northern Paris.