Man shot dead after stabbing police officer in Paris

A man died Thursday after being shot by police when he wounded an officer with a knife in the Olympic host city of Paris, the state prosecution service said.

Police said no terrorist motive was suspected, but the violence raised tensions as Paris prepares to host the Games from July 26.

Police shot dead a man who wounded an officer near the Champs-Elysees on Thursday evening, police sources told AFP.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said staff at a Louis Vuitton boutique had reported the man was armed with a knife and had asked officers to intervene.

He said the man resisted and tried to flee, attacking them when they caught up with him and wounding one with the knife.

Nunez told reporters the officer was seriously injured in the neck but his life was not in danger.

He said there was “no known terrorist motive at this time, and no link to the Olympics.”

A source at the prefecture said the attacker was a Senegalese citizen and was already known to the police.

A source from the prosecutor's office later told AFP that the man had died, adding that a criminal investigation had been launched into the attack on the officer.

Strict Olympic security

An explosives disposal truck and several police vehicles were parked near the site of the attack, an AFP journalist was able to verify. The area was surrounded by caution tape.

France is on high alert ahead of the Games, having been the victim of numerous terrorist attacks in recent years.

On Wednesday evening, a motorist crashed his car into the terrace of a café in northern Paris, killing one person and seriously injuring several others.

Prosecutors said the driver was admitted for psychiatric treatment.

On Monday, a soldier was stabbed in the back by a 40-year-old man at a major train station north of Paris.

Authorities said the soldier's life was not in danger.

Thousands of security officers blocked off a six-kilometer (four-mile) stretch of central Paris on Thursday ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony.

Authorities say 35,000 police officers and 18,000 soldiers will provide security during the Games.

More than 300,000 spectators are expected to watch the opening ceremony on the banks of the Seine.

It will be the first time that the Summer Olympics have opened with a ceremony outside the main athletics stadium.

The national anti-terrorist prosecutor, Olivier Christen, said on Tuesday that the Games “are not the target of specific attacks by international terrorist organisations.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin insisted on Wednesday that there was “no credible threat” to the Games at this stage.