1 person killed in Paris knife attack; attacker shot dead

PARIS – A man killed a passer-by in a knife attack in the heart of Paris and injured four others before being shot dead by police, French authorities said.

"A person attacked five people in the second district of Paris. Police intervened immediately," Pierre Gaudin, a senior official at the Paris prefecture, told reporters.

"The individual died. Another person, seriously injured (by the attacked) died from their injuries."

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb called it an "odious" attack.

The Paris prefecture had earlier said a person had carried out a knife attack in the second arrondissement – or district – of the French capital. Paris' opera and landmark retail stores are located in that area.

France has been on high alert as a series of attacks commissioned or inspired by Islamic State have hit the country over the past three years in which dozens of people have been killed.

(Reporting by Julie Carriat and Emmanuel Jarry; Additional reporting by Bate Felix and Brian Love)