Paris attack: police officer and suspect shot dead on Champs Elysees; IS claims responsibility

Live updates from the Telegraph here. 

A precis of events so far from the French edition of The Local

A French police officer was killed on Thursday and another left fighting for his life after an apparent terrorist shooting on the famous Champs Elysées avenue just days before the first round of the presidential election.

A gunman opened fire on police officers on the famous avenue in the west of Paris around 9pm on Thursday evening when the boulevard was packed with shoppers, restaurant goers and tourists.

One officer was killed and two others injured, at least one them critically. The shooter was also killed at the scene, police confirmed, with sources telling French media he was known to intelligence services.

Not long after President François Hollande said that the shooting was a suspected terrorist attack, Isis claimed responsibility.

One witness told BFM TV he saw the man pull out a kalashnikov before opening fire. “As soon as we realized he was shooting we ran into a shop and ran upstairs and saw out of the window the police shoot him dead,” said the unnamed witness.

France’s counter-terrorist investigators have been placed in charge of the investigation, suggesting authorities are in little doubt the shooting is just the latest in a series of terror attacks against France and in particular its capital city in recent years.