Rescue service workers evacuate an injured person on a stretcher after the shooting in Montrouge which left a female police officer dead
A
policewoman was shot in the back and killed and a hero street cleaner
was shot in the face as he tried to grapple with the gunman in a second
horrific attack on the streets of Paris within 24 hours.
The
officer, who has not been named, died this morning after being attacked
just before dawn in Montrouge, a suburb in the south of the French
capital.
A
street cleaner who stepped in to try and disarm the gunmen is also said
to be in a serious condition, after he was shot in the face.
The
shooting came less than 24 hours after the massacre at the Paris
offices of Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 dead - including two police
officers.
It is not known if the two attacks are linked.
It is thought the assailant used an M5 assault rifle in the attack, before fleeing the scene wearing a 'bullet-proof vest''
France's top security official Bernard Cazenueve said the officer - reported to be a trainee - had stopped to investigate a traffic accident when the firing started.
The gunman is believed to have been driving one of the cars.
'There was an officer in front of a white car and a man running away who shot,' said Ahmed Sassi, who saw the shooting from his home nearby.
He said the shooter wore dark clothes but no mask.
'It didn't look like a big gun because he held it with one hand,' Sassi said.
The gunman - who is understood to have been armed with an M5 assault rifle - blasted the officer.
The street cleaner who was shot in the face was one of two men who tried to grapple with the man during the incident, The Times reports.
The cleaner was said to be in a serious condition by one police source, while another said emergency services had tried to revive the police officer at the scene 'but she was in a very bad way'.
Another witness, William Thomas, a 19-year-old who lives close to this morning's attack, said: 'I was woken up by the first three shots.
'Then I heard someone shout "Take that" and there were another two shots. It was before 8am.'
The automatic gunfire was followed by the arrival of numerous special operations police, accompanied by emergency services.
A man who appeared to be of North African origin was seen running away from the scene. He was thought to be wearing a bullet proof vest.
'Emergency workers tried to revive the woman officer at the scene but she was in a very bad way,' an officer at the scene had said earlier.
The street sweeper, who was also hurt in the attack, is said to have been seriously injured
Attack came less than 24 hours after 12 people were shot dead at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, also in Paris
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve - pictured second left, at the site of the shooting in Montrouge - said the shooter was still at large
A man arrested by police is escorted in a hotel in Montrouge during investigations following the shooting of a female police officer
The second suspect drove away in white Renault Clio. One of the men was arrested, said a local police spokesman. He was described as a 53-year-old.
Cazeneuve - who visited the scene - says the attacker in the shooting Thursday remained at large.
French officials confirmed the female officer died this morning, bringing to three the number of officers killed in the French capital in the last 24 hours.
Two officers were killed in the Charlie Hebdo massacre: Ahmed Merabet, 42, and Franck Brinsolaro, 49.
Meanwhile, police are understood to be closing in on the two 'armed and dangerous' brothers who carried out yesterday's attack at the offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Shocking images emerged from yesterday's attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices - including this one of a police officer being shot dead in the street
Witnesses filmed the gunmen running rampage in the streets holding automatic weapons
The armed gunmen were spotted near the satirical magazine's offices in Paris
An injured man being taken to hospital after the shooting at Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning
Police are said to have located brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi - alleged to have carried out the massacre - in northern France
Cherif and Said Kouachi are thought to have been located in northern France.
A petrol station attendant was said to have identified the men, who were driving a white Renault Clio in the direction of Paris 'with exposed Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers' inside the vehicle, a source told RTL.
Detectives identified the Kouachis after one left his identification papers in the abandoned Citroen car used to escape after the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Their alleged getaway driver Hamyd Mourad, 18, turned himself into police in Charleville-Mezieres in northern France.
A French police source said Mourad, a student, was encouraged to hand himself in by relatives after his name appeared on social media as a suspect for the killings.