Police officer killed, 2 hurt in Paris attack
Islamic State claims credit for the shooting — a jolt before French presidential election.
PARIS — A gunman opened fire on a police van on the Champs-Elysees late Thursday, killing one officer and injuring two people in an attack that came just days before the French presidential election and heightened tension in this terrorism-weary capital.
Islamic State identified the attacker as an “Islamic State fighter” and gave a pseudonym suggesting he was from Belgium, according to its Amaq news agency.
The gunman, carrying an automatic weapon, was shot dead by officers who returned fire as he ran off.
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the man had driven up the busy boulevard in a car just before 9 p.m. He stopped the vehicle, jumped out and opened fire on a parked police van.
One police officer died at the scene, Brandet said. A second officer was hospitalized with critical injuries. A woman passerby was slightly injured by a flying shard of glass, authorities said.
The gunman continued firing at officers as he ran up the sidewalk before being gunned down by police.
“It’s too early to say why these police officers were deliberately targeted on the Champs-Elysees this evening,” Brandet said. Police are investigating whether the gunman had acted alone, he said.
There were news agency reports of a second officer dying and a second gunman fleeing, but authorities said those were false. Although the motive was unclear, police were treating the crime as a potential act of terrorism.
The Paris anti-terrorist brigade was investigating the attack. French television reported that the gunman was “known to security services” and that officers were searching his home east of Paris.
“This is a serious incident,” Brandet said. “We are facing a particularly high terrorist threat in our country right now. There is a threat to target symbolic places like the Champs Elysees, cultural and tourist sites and, as we have seen, the forces of law and order.”
He said the gunman was carrying an automatic gun that he described as a “weapon of war.”
“Police are trying to secure the area and around. We don’t know the motivation [for the attack] or whether this man acted alone or had accomplices,” Brandet told journalists.
Police closed the Champs-Elysees and surrounding streets and began evacuating restaurants and bars. Local subway stations were closed, and officials asked the public to keep away from the area.