A knifeman has been shot during his arrest over the stabbing of a female officer inside a police station in France.
Three police officers are reported to have been injured.
The horror attack took place in La Chappelle-sur-Erdre, close to the city of Nantes, at around 10am on Friday.
It follows a series of terrorist incidents across the country, including the murder of a police worker in Paris last month.
Police said the most recent attack saw the assailant “slash the woman officer several times”.
He then fled the scene before he was hunted down by armed police at around 1pm, when “gunshots were exchanged”.
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(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Helicopters and more than 200 officers were deployed to search for the attacker.
Two suffered injuries to the arm and hand in the shoot-out, according to reports, with the knifeman in a critical condition.
The victim, in her 40s, has been rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries to her legs and thighs, it is said.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Witnesses said they saw the attacker get into a VW Golf after the attack, but then he got out of the car and fled on food.
“He was brandishing the pistol taken from the police officer he stabbed,” said a local official.
“Gendarmes neutralised the individual suspected of stabbing the municipal policewoman in Chapelle-sur-Erdre,” Interior Minister Gerarld Darmanin tweeted.
“Thank you to them and thoughts for the gendarmes injured during this arrest.”
The attacker is being held in a secure police station in the Nantes area.
A motive is yet to be established, according to reports.
The attack in Paris last month was carried out by an immigrant from Tunisia, who was shot by police after killing the officer.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
It later emerged he had watched religious videos glorifying acts of jihad just before waging his attack.
It followed six years of attacks in France, including the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty by a terrorist in October last year.
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The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in Paris.
Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue.
La Chappelle-sur-Erdre has a population of around 20,000 people.