Paris: A French police officer shot and injured a man who attacked him with a hammer outside Paris's Notre-Dame cathedral on Tuesday, authorities said.
Police sealed off the area in front of the cathedral, where the attacker lay injured on the ground.
The attack comes with France on high alert for more jihadist strikes after a weekend attack in London, where extremists used a van and knives to crush to death and kill seven people, one of them French.
Authorities in Paris asked the public to stay away from Notre-Dame, one of France's biggest tourist attractions situated on the banks of the Seine river in the heart of the capital.
French TV reported scenes of panic during the shooting, with tourists scrambling for cover.
France is under a state of emergency and on its highest possible level of alert following a string of terror attacks that began in 2015, which have killed over 230 people.
In the last fatal attack, a policeman was shot and killed on Paris's prestigious Champs-Elysees avenue on April 20, three days before the first round of the presidential election.
Major attacks in France targeted the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in January 2015 and in November that year, gunmen and suicide bombers attacked sites around Paris including the Bataclan concert hall, killing 130 people.
Then in July last year, a radicalised Tunisian man drove a lorry at high speed through a Bastille Day fireworks display on the Nice waterfront, massacring 86 people.
Since then there have been a series of smaller attacks, often targeting security forces.
(Images: AFP)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Police sealed off the area in front of the cathedral, where the attacker lay injured on the ground.
The attack comes with France on high alert for more jihadist strikes after a weekend attack in London, where extremists used a van and knives to crush to death and kill seven people, one of them French.
French TV reported scenes of panic during the shooting, with tourists scrambling for cover.
France is under a state of emergency and on its highest possible level of alert following a string of terror attacks that began in 2015, which have killed over 230 people.
In the last fatal attack, a policeman was shot and killed on Paris's prestigious Champs-Elysees avenue on April 20, three days before the first round of the presidential election.
Advertisement
Then in July last year, a radicalised Tunisian man drove a lorry at high speed through a Bastille Day fireworks display on the Nice waterfront, massacring 86 people.
Advertisement
(Images: AFP)
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
New Golden Rooster Fitted To Spire Of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral 4 Years After Tragic Fire, Notre-Dame's Spire Reappears On Paris Skyline Notre-Dame Reconstruction On Track, To Reopen By 2024 End Keir Starmer, Set To Be Next UK PM, Changed Party's Stance On Kashmir PM Modi Congratulates Keir Starmer For Win, Has A Message For Rishi Sunak Updates: Rishi Sunak's "Sorry" To Public As He Leaves Office How Is This Year's NEET PG Different? India's Defence Production Hits Record High Of Rs 1.27 Lakh Crore In 2023 5 Key Takeaways From UK General Election Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.