Paris police say officer and attacker shot, killed on the Champs-Elysees

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Paris police say officer and attacker shot, killed on the Champs-Elysees

Paris police say a gunman has killed a police officer and wounded another before being killed himself in an attack on the Champs-Elysees shopping district.

Reporter Margot Haddad has the latest.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station Thursday night at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.

The French Interior Ministry said the shooting attack on the famed Champs-Elysees boulevard in Paris deliberately targeted police officers guarding the area.

Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television that a man came out of a car and opened fire on a police vehicle. Brandet said the police officers were “deliberately” targeted.

Officials say the suspect in the attack on Paris police officers previously was flagged as an extremist.

French President Hollande says convinced Paris shooting was ‘terrorist-related’ and will hold security cabinet meeting Friday morning.

The attack came three days before the first round of balloting in France’s tense presidential election. Security is high preceding the vote after police said they arrested two men Tuesday in what they described as a thwarted terror attack.
Paris police say officer and attacker shot, killed on the Champs-Elysees

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.

According to a document obtained by Reuters, police have issued an arrest warrant for a second suspect in the shooting.

The U.S. State Department tweeted a travel warning for Americans in Paris.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the shooting in Paris ‘looks like another terrorist attack,’ sends condolences to France.

Paris police say officer and attacker shot, killed on the Champs-Elysees

Story from the Associated Press and Reuters