PARIS - The Paris police chief says a man armed with a machete and shouting "God is great" in Arabic launched himself at soldiers and police officers near the Louvre Museum. One of the soldiers shot the attacker five times, gravely wounding him.

French police secure the site near the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, France, February 3, 2017 after a French soldier shot and wounded a man armed with a knife after he tried to enter the Louvre museum in central Paris carrying a suitcase, police sources said.??[Photo/Agencies]

Police chief Michel Cadot says the attacker was also carrying two backpacks but they were later found not to contain any explosives.
One soldier had a minor scalp injury.

Paris police say a soldier has opened fire outside the Louvre Museum after he was attacked by someone, and the area is being evacuated.

The Paris police press office said it has no other details other than that a soldier opened fire.

A police union official, Luc Poignant, told BFM-TV that an attacker assaulted the soldier and that the area is now being secured.
The museum in the center of Paris is one of the French capital's biggest tourist attractions.

Soldiers on patrol are part of security measures that have beefed-up in the wake of terror attacks in France in 2015 and 2016.