Police tape surrounded the quiet, middle-class area and neighbours expressed surprise at the searches.
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Police said the shooter was a known terror suspect who had been convicted in 2005 of three counts of attempted murder – two of them against police officers.
As with all other similar attacks in France, investigators are looking into the possibility of accomplices.
He got out of the auto and fired an automatic weapon, killing one officer in the van, before shooting at others who were standing on the nearby pavement, injuring two before he was shot dead by police.
The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility just a few hours after the attack.
Islamic State had earlier released a statement crediting Abu Yousif al-Belgiki (Abu Yousif the Belgian) for the terrorist attack.
Authorities foiled an attack in the southern city of Marseille just a day before a campaign appearance by far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Authorities also found a Koran in the vehicle he abandoned at the scene of the attack.
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told BFM television that a man stepped from a auto and opened fire on a police vehicle. Three of his family have been placed in detention, the French interior ministry said. It was immediately blocked by armed officers after the attack and nearby metro stations were closed.
Macron, a 39-year-old moderate, is presenting himself as a guarantor of the European Union, promising reform and appealing to pro-Europe sentiment among the French electorate. “Some were crying. There were tens, maybe even hundreds of them”.
Speaking of “incredible lapses in the justice system”, she said that both the current government and its predecessor had done everything to make France lose the war on terrorism.
Emerging from an emergency meeting of security officials, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced a full mobilization of security forces, including elite units, to back up 50,000 police already earmarked to ensure citizens’ safety during the election.
One of the key questions is how the attack might impact on the vote. A French station hosting a televised event with the 11 candidates briefly interrupted its broadcast to report the shootings, AP reported.
French authorities said Cheurfi, 39, was a French national who lived with his mother in the eastern Paris suburb of Chelles. She canceled a minor campaign stop, but scheduled another.
Meanwhile, centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron tweeted that he was ready to deal with the terrorist threat.
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“There was a bus full of police”. The two highest polling candidates will enter a runoff in May should no one take a clear majority.
