A police officer was seriously injured in a knife attack late on Thursday, July 18, near the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris. The perpetrator of the attack, hit by police fire, succumbed to his injuries later that evening

At around 7 p.m., police officers intervened in the 8th arrondissement of Paris at the request of private security guards at the Louis Vuitton boutique on the corner of rue Vernet and avenue des Champs-Élysées. Crews from the Direction de l’ordre public et de la circulation, on patrol in the Champs-Élysées area, were alerted by security guards who reported the presence of a man armed with a knife in the boutique.

The police set up a security perimeter and approached the suspect, who resisted and rebelled, explained Laurent Nunez, Prefect of the Paris Police. The man fled before turning and attempting to stab the police officers several times. One of the officers used his gas gun, but the assailant managed to wound one officer with his knife, hitting him “in the back of the neck, in the cervical region”, said Laurent Nunez. Another police officer then drew his service weapon, shooting the assailant. According to a police source quoted by H24 NEWS, the injured officer was taken to hospital in an absolute emergency, but his life is not in danger.

Gérald Darmanin, the resigning Minister of the Interior, said that “the perpetrator was immediately neutralized by police officers securing the scene”. The suspect, a 27-year-old legally resident foreigner, was shot by a police officer and succumbed to his injuries later that evening, according to the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

Gérald Darmanin expressed his “unwavering support” for the police officers. Laurent Nunez insisted that the individual was threatening and that the use of the administrative weapon was “entirely proportionate”, although an investigation is underway to confirm this

At this stage, there is no terrorist motivation and the individual is not known to terrorist intelligence services, added the Paris Police Prefect. A criminal investigation has been opened for attempted murder of a police officer, according to the Paris public prosecutor’s office.