Paris attacker shouted 'This is for Syria' before being shot by police

PARIS – A man armed with a hammer shouted "This is for Syria" before attacking police officers on Tuesday outside France's Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, the interior minister said.

The assailant wounded one officer before he was shot and wounded by other officers. The Paris prosecutor's office swiftly began a counterterrorism investigation.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the attacker was carrying the identification card of an Algerian student. He said preliminary information indicated the attacker had acted alone.

Dozens of armed police sealed off the area and the cathedral in central Paris that is visited by millions of tourists every year was locked down while the security forces secured the area.

It is the first attack since President Emmanuel Macron won last month's election and comes days before a parliamentary poll in which opinion surveys show Macron on course to win a landslide majority. His rivals portrayed him as weak on security during the presidential campaign.

"Situation under control, one policeman injured, the assailant was neutralized and taken to hospital," Paris police said on Twitter.

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Two police sources said the officers shot the assailant in the thorax after he had threatened them with a hammer and refused to stop. One policeman was hurt, according to one source.

Karine Dalle, a spokeswoman for the Paris diocese, told BFM TV 900 people were still inside the cathedral as police secured the area.

One tourist inside Notre Dame wrote on Twitter: "Not the holiday experience wanted. Trapped in Notre Dame Cathedral after police shoot a man. We are with our 2 terrified children."

France is under a state of emergency after a wave of militant attacks since early 2015 that have killed more than 230 people across the country.

It has soldiers patrolling its streets alongside police to protect tourist sites, government buildings and events.

Three women were arrested in September after police found a car laden with gas cylinders abandoned near Notre Dame cathedral in what the interior ministry at the time said was a likely planned imminent attack.