AA man was killed in a shootout with French police on Friday after he attacked and badly wounded a police officer with a knife in the western town of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, officials said, reports Deutsche Welle.
French interior minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that "the Gendarmes have neutralized the individual suspected of carrying out the knife attack on the municipal police officers in la Chapelle-sur-Erdre. Thank you and my thoughts for the officers injured during the arrest."
The attacker was severely wounded after he began to exchange gunfire with the police and died a short time later.
Darmanin said the assailant had been released from prison in March after serving an eight-year sentence for violent crime.
He added that the man, a French citizen in his 40s, was on a watch list of potential terrorist threats because he was believed to have extremist religious views.
