Paris police shoot man near Notre-Dame after hammer attack

[PARIS] A Paris police officer fired at a man who attacked him with a hammer Tuesday near the Notre-Dame cathedral.

The French capital's police said the situation is under control, and that the assailant has been taken to a hospital.

The assault, right in front of the Paris police headquarters, comes just four days after a terrorist attack on the London Bridge in the UK capital killed seven and left dozens injured or missing. For Paris, the incident follows an attack on April 20 on the Champs-Elysees, which left one police officer dead.

Terrorist attacks in France since the beginning of 2015 have left more than 200 people dead. French President Emmanuel Macron is planning to go to the coastal city of Nice on Bastille Day on July 14 to mark the one-year anniversary of an attack that killed 86 people and injured hundreds.

In the Tuesday assault, the officer standing guard in front of the police HQ's gates sustained a head injury, said Yvan Assomia, a representative of the regional Alliance police union. The Paris prosecutor has opened a terror probe in relation to the attack.

As dozens of police vans and helmeted police officers cordoned off the area around the famous cathedral in central Paris, visitors were advised to stay away. Mr Assomia said he couldn't provide the identity of the assailant or details about his physical condition. Law enforcement officers were still searching the area for potential accomplices, he added.

BLOOMBERG