Trump addresses Paris incident: Looks like a terrorist attack

Speaking during a televised debate around the time of Thursday’s attack, Fillon said there was “no room for pursuing today or tomorrow an electoral campaign because first of all we have to demonstrate our solidarity with the police officers”.

“A little after 9 p.m. a vehicle stopped alongside a police auto which was parked”.

Thursday’s attack happened around 9 p.m. Paris time when authorities say the gunman in a vehicle pulled up alongside a parked law enforcement van on the city’s most well-know stretch and opened fire.

Police searched a home in Chelles, a neighborhood in eastern Paris, following the attack. But it stressed that questioning family members is routine.

At approximately 9:00 pm (1900 GMT), 39-year-old Frenchman Karim Cheurfi pulled out an automatic weapon and opened fire on a police van just a few hundred metres from the iconic Arc de Triomphe.

The terrorist group said it was behind the attack and named the gunman as Abu Yusuf al Beljiki, suggesting he was from Belgium.

Mr Molins said Cheurfi had been detained by police in February for threatening police officers but had been freed due to lack of evidence.

Two officials said Cheurfi was convicted in 2003 of attempted homicide in the shootings of two police officers.

A spokesman for the interior ministry Pierre-Henry Brandet paid tribute to the fast reflexes of police at the scene who managed to kill the gunman and prevent further bloodshed on a busy spring-time evening. A female tourist was also wounded.

Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melanchon said that panic should not “interrupt democracy”, and later, Le Pen called on Hollande to restore border controls and immediately expel or detain anyone in France suspected of radical Islamist sentiments.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting late on Thursday of a French policeman on the Champs Elysees by a French national who lived in Paris.

The incident came as French voters prepared go to the polls on Sunday in the most tightly-contested presidential election in living memory.

Officials are reporting that more than 50,000 police personnel have been mobilized to provide enhanced security for the event. Security is high preceding the vote after police said they arrested two men Tuesday in what they described as a thwarted terror attack.

Thousands of troops and armed police have been deployed to guard tourist hotspots such as the Champs Elysees or other potential targets like government buildings and religious sites.

The bustling Champs Elysees lies in the heart of Paris and is lined with shops and restaurants. Diners in some restaurants took refuge in basements, cinema-goers cowered in the theatres and pandemonium broke out in a nearby metro station, according to witnesses.