To police officers were killed when a gunman opened fire late Thursday on the famed Champs-Élysées shopping district in Paris, officials said.
Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.
The French Interior Ministry said the shooting attack 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 the police vehicle.
Brandet said the police officers were “deliberately” targeted, and that police are securing the area.
An eyewitness told Reuters a man got out of a car and began shooting “with a kalashnikov.”
Authorities warned people in the heart of the French capital to avoid the area after the shooting, France 24 reported.
Many police vehicles can be seen on the avenue that passes many of the city’s most iconic landmarks.
