The Goutte d’Or neighborhood in Paris’ 18th arrondissement, a multi-ethnic district not far from the Gare du Nord train station, was locked down, as were two metro lines running through the area, though they later reopened.
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One of the officials said the man threatened officers at the police station in northern Paris with a butcher’s knife.
The attack happened a year to the day after the deadly terror attack on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine, and at about the same time.
The area around the police station had been put on lockdown, and police said they were treating the incident as “potential terrorism”.
Explosives experts were brought in after wires were seen extending from the suspect’s body.
“On Thursday morning, a man attempted to attack a policeman at the reception of the police station before being hit by shots from the police”, interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.
Police expanded their security cordon about an hour after the attack, swiftly and roughly clearing out hundreds who had gathered at a subway station and along nearby streets.
The cover was an anniversary edition, commemorating the attacks a year ago when Islamist militants killed 12 during an assault on the Charlie Hebdo newsroom in Paris.
It is unclear whether he was, in fact, the man who was later shot by police.
He wore a pouch of what appeared to be explosives, but it turned out to be fake, Paris prosecutor’s spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre told CNN.
The knifeman reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” (an Arabic phrase meaning “God is the greatest”) before lunging at police officers.
The speech will be followed by a concert on Sunday to mark the one million people who poured on to the streets of Paris on January 11, 2015, in an outpouring of support for freedom of expression in the wake of the deaths of Charlie Hebdo’s best-known cartoonists.
The man, who has not yet been identified, was apparently armed with a knife, according to Reuters.
The man then opened fire before being shot dead.
Hollande added that over the past year, almost 200 people had been barred from leaving France on suspicion of seeking to join terrorist groups in Syria or Iraq and that over 50 foreigners had been barred from entering the country. “They died so that we may live free”.
France has been on high alert ever since the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo office and at a Jewish supermarket in which 17 people died over three days. Among the plans are what could be controversial measures to give police more flexible rules of engagement and stronger stop-and-search powers.
Survivors of the January attacks, meanwhile, are continuing to speak out.
“And little by little, I realised that “I am Charlie” was misused for so many things”.
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“We know that ISIL or al Qaeda is encouraging (such attacks) in Europe, not only in France”, she told CNN, using another name for ISIS.
