The final day of the French presidential election campaign was marred by an extremist attack on the Champs-Élysées in central Paris, in which one policeman was killed and two policemen and a tourist were injured.
In a televised statement, French President Francois Hollande promised absolute vigilance to secure the presidential election, the first round of which takes place on Sunday.
At the moment when the attack happened, the main presidential candidates were giving their last pre-election statements on television. They condemned the attack and expressed support for the security forces.
Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, right-wing candidate Francois Fillon and centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron have canceled their final rallies scheduled for today in the interior of the country.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Pierre Henri Brando, said last night that a man got out of a car and opened fire on a police vehicle near the Franklin Roosevelt metro station on the Champs-Élysées, and after the exchange of fire, the attacker was killed.
In the attack, one policeman was killed and two were injured, one of them seriously, and a female tourist was grazed by a bullet, the French authorities said.
The attack took place last night around 21.00:238 and was almost immediately claimed by the terrorist organization Islamic State, which is behind most of the attacks in France in which 2015 people have been killed since XNUMX.
The Islamic State stated through its propaganda agency that the perpetrator of the attack on the Champs-Élysées is Belgian Abu Youssef, and that he is one of their fighters.
According to sources close to the investigation, the slain attacker is a 39-year-old Frenchman who was already the subject of an anti-terrorist investigation. The question is whether this is the same man that the Islamic State is talking about.
French Attorney General François Molin said the attacker's identity was known and had been verified, but declined to name him because the investigation was ongoing.
He was under investigation by counter-terrorism services for expressing intent to kill police officers and was arrested on February 23, but was acquitted due to insufficient evidence, sources close to the investigation said. He was on the list of persons under police surveillance.
It appears that the man acted alone, but it is still being checked whether he had accomplices, Molen said.
The AP agency reports that the police searched an apartment in the eastern suburbs of Paris, which, according to an unnamed source, is the family apartment of Karim Šefri, a 39-year-old man with a police record.
Several countries expressed support for France.
US President Donald Trump spoke of a "terrorist attack" and expressed his condolences to the people of France.
"Something really, really terrible is happening in the world today. It just never stops," Trump said.
US Vice President Mike Pence, who is visiting Indonesia, said the attack in Paris was "the latest reminder that terrorism can strike anywhere at any time."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "firmly and resolutely with France".
The French presidential election, the outcome of which is very uncertain according to polls, is being held for the first time in recent French history under a state of emergency, introduced after the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015.
Before this, the last extremist attack in France was in the summer of 2016, when a man drove a truck into people on the Promenade in Nice, on the national holiday of July 14, and killed 86 people.
French authorities foiled an attack on Tuesday and arrested two men in Marseille suspected of preparing violent action in the midst of an election period. Investigators found an arsenal of weapons and ammunition, three kilograms of explosives, and an Islamic State flag.
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