Police officer and attacker killed in Paris shooting

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.
By The Newsroom
Published 20th Apr 2017, 21:13 BST
Updated 9th May 2017, 18:52 BST
In this image made from video, police attend the scene after an incident on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Thursday April 20, 2017. French media are reporting that two police officers were shot Thursday on the famed shopping boulevard. Picture: APIn this image made from video, police attend the scene after an incident on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Thursday April 20, 2017. French media are reporting that two police officers were shot Thursday on the famed shopping boulevard. Picture: AP
In this image made from video, police attend the scene after an incident on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Thursday April 20, 2017. French media are reporting that two police officers were shot Thursday on the famed shopping boulevard. Picture: AP

Penny Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth North, has said: ‘Thoughts are with Paris tonight.’

Portsmouth South MP Flick Drummond added: 'This is another terrible incident which appears to be a terrorist attack but it remains unclear what has exactly happened and who is responsible.

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'Yet again a brave policeman serving the community has lost his life. Another very sad day'.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert said that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station on Thursday night at the centre of the avenue popular with tourists.

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.

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Police had arrested two men on Tuesday in what they described as a thwarted terror attack.

In this image made from video, police attend the scene after an incident on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Thursday April 20, 2017. French media are reporting that two police officers were shot Thursday on the famed shopping boulevard. Picture: APIn this image made from video, police attend the scene after an incident on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Thursday April 20, 2017. French media are reporting that two police officers were shot Thursday on the famed shopping boulevard. Picture: AP
In this image made from video, police attend the scene after an incident on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Thursday April 20, 2017. French media are reporting that two police officers were shot Thursday on the famed shopping boulevard. Picture: AP

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.