Machete-wielding man shot by French soldier at Paris Louvre

A major security operation is underway near the Louvre museum in Paris after a man attempted to attack a soldier who was patrolling in the area. The French Prime Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has called the incident an “attack of terrorist nature”.

Paris anti-terrorist police are investigating after a man carrying a rucksack wounded one soldier with a knife. Another soldier in the patrol opened fire, injuring the assailant in the belly.

The attempted attack took place in the Carousel du Louvre, a commercial underground shopping centre near the entrance to the Louvre, which is one of the world’s most-visited museums.

The attack happened at around 10am on a stairway in the shopping centre when the man ran at soldiers with a knife.

The assailant is "conscious and wounded in the belly," Michel Cadot, the Paris police prefect, said, addressing press on the spot. "Firefighters are currently taking care of him and after checking the contents of the bag and the two bags on his back, we found that there were no explosives," he said, adding that the man headed towards soldiers “armed with a machete”.

One of the soldiers "was slightly injured in the scalp," and that "the police and the military acted with great mastery".

"The soldier fired five bullets," he added, describing how the man hurried threateningly towards the soldiers.

“We are dealing with an attack from an individual who was clearly aggressive and represented a direct threat, and whose comments lead us to believe that he wished to carry out a terrorist incident.”

He added: “There was also a second individual who was behaving suspiciously, who has also been detained, but for now there does not appear to be a link between that individual and the attack.”

The identity and nationality of the attacker remains unknown for now, French interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told reporters.

Police cordoned off and evacuated the area around the museum on Friday, while Louvre officials closed the museum and kept visitors inside from leaving.

The soldier was patrolling as part of the Operation Sentenelle foot-patrols around French landmarks that have been in place since the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Paris kosher supermarket in January 2015.

France has been hit by a series of militant Islamist attacks over the past two years that have killed more than 230 people, and which have been claimed by the militant group ISIS.