PARIS (AP) —Paris police say an unidentified assailant has attacked a police officer near the Notre Dame Cathedral, and the officer then shot and wounded the attacker.
A police spokesperson told The Associated Press that the officer used his weapon to shoot the attacker in Tuesday’s incident. The spokesperson, who was not authorized to be publicly named, said the attacker was being hospitalized.
A police union official, Cedric Michel, said a man armed with a hammer went after the police officer who was patrolling on the esplanade in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. Michel said the attacker was “neutralized” by police.
It is unclear whether the attacker was acting alone.
Police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert tells The Associated Press that the intervention is over. She did not provide further details.
Another police official said the attacker surged at police patrolling the scene with a hammer.
Paris police tweeted that one officer was wounded in the attack.
Hundreds of people on the esplanade in front of Notre Dame were evacuated while the operation was under way.
Witnesses around Notre Dame Cathedral are describing a dramatic police operation in the tourist-filled site in central Paris.
Lawrence Langner, a 73-year-old American visiting the neighborhood just across the Seine River from the cathedral, told The Associated Press that he suddenly heard a commotion and two detonations like gunshots.
Journalist David Metreau, who said his office overlooks the square, tweeted that there were two blasts that sounded like shots, and posted a photo of a body lying seemingly inert on the ground.
Others posted photos online of what appeared to be the interior of medieval Notre Dame, one of France’s most-visited monuments.
