Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said it was “obviously [a] terrorist attack”. A soldier shot and injured a man who tried to attack him with a knife after being prevented from entering an underground shopping mall that connects to Paris’s Louvre Museum on Friday.
One attacker armed with a machete attacked military and police officers securing the Carrousel Louvre, the head of Paris police, Michel Cadot, told reporters. “The soldier fired five bullets seriously wounding the attacker in the stomach,” Cadot said, adding that the attacker had shouted “Allahu Akbar”. Cadot said there were no explosives in the attacker’s two backpacks. The soldier was lightly injured.
A nearby metro station -- Palais Royal - Louvre Museum -- was closed to the public, the city transport operator RATP said. The Louvre has also been closed. Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the identity of the attacker was still unknown and a second person was arrested at the scene. However, the role he may have played was still unclear.
A judiciary investigation has been launched. France has been on high alert and security measures were beefed-up in the wake of terror attacks over the last two years.