A man with an automatic weapon opened fire on a police vehicle on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, leaving one officer dead and another was wounded when a gunman opened fire in the French Interior Ministry said Thursday night. At least two attackers are believed to have been involved in the attack, one of whom has been killed.
The French Interior Ministry said the shooting attack deliberately targeted police officers guarding the area. Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television that a man emerged from the car and opened fire on the van with an "automatic weapon," killing one officer instantly, he said. The man "then ran away, managing to shoot and wound two other policemen. Other policemen engaged and shot and killed the attacker," Brandet said.. There was "no other police operation underway" in the popular shopping district, he said.
The Authorities warned people in the heart of the French capital to avoid the area after the shooting, at least three underground train stations of the Paris Metro the Champs-Elysees-Clemenceau, George V and F. Roosevelt stations -- have been "closed off" near the site of the police operation on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
President Franois Hollande said: "A national tribute will be paid to this policeman who was killed in such a cowardly way," he said.
The shooting comes three days before French general elections and Paris was already in a state of heightened alert
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