ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attack

1 police officer killed, 2 seriously injured in shooting on Champs-Élysées‬‬.

A police officer was killed and two others were seriously injured when a gunman opened fire late Thursday on the famed Champs-Élysées in Paris before he was shot dead, officials said. The Islamic State group quickly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press the attacker, who is believed to have acted alone, targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.

French prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation into the attack on the officers, which took place at 9 p.m. local time.

French President Francois Hollande said he is convinced the circumstances of the Paris shooting points to a terrorist act.

“We need to realize our security, law enforcement forces targeted have the full support of the nation,” he said in an address to the nation.

Hollande said security forces would be vigilant during the forthcoming presidential election.

“We shall be of the utmost vigilance, especially in relation to the election,” he said, adding that an emergency meeting of security, defense and intelligence top officials would be held on Friday.

In a statement from its Amaq news agency, ISIS named the attacker as Abu Yusuf al Beljiki, suggesting he was Belgian. The claim of responsibility came unusually swiftly for the group, which has been losing territory in Iraq and Syria.

The French Interior Ministry said the shooting attack “deliberately targeted” police officers guarding the area. Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the gunman came out of a car and opened fire on the police vehicle with an automatic firearm akin to a “war weapon.”

“We are faced with a specifically high terrorist threat,” he told reporters.

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