Paris shooting: gunman served 15 years for attempted police murders

Reading Time:5 minutes

View of the traffic jam at the Champs Elysee avenue near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Photo: EPA

Published: 7:45pm, 21 Apr 2017Updated: 11:52am, 22 Apr 2017

Police in France have searched a property believed to be the home of a known terror suspect who shot dead one police officer and seriously wounded two more in an attack two days before voting begins in an already tense presidential election.

The gunman stepped from a car and opened fire on a police van with an automatic rifle outside a Marks & Spencer store on the Champs Elysees in central Paris at about 9pm on Thursday.

The attacker, a 39-year-old man widely named as Karim Cheurfi, was known to French security services. Media reported he had served nearly 15 years in prison after being convicted of three attempted murders, two against police officers, and was released on parole in 2015.

French President Francois Hollande speaks with policemen at Paris police headquarters. Photo: AP

The attacker was shot dead by police in the van while trying to flee the scene on foot. A statement from the Isis propaganda agency, Amaq, said the attack was carried out by an “Islamic State fighter”.

After a series of atrocities that have killed more than 230 people in France over the past two years, authorities had long feared bloodshed in the run-up to polling day and observers have speculated the attack could bring security to the forefront of voters’ concerns in Sunday’s first round.

The US president, Donald Trump, tweeted on Friday that the attack would have a “big effect” on the election, adding: “The people of France will not take much more of this.”