Louvre officials in Paris closed the museum and kept visitors inside from leaving on Friday (February 3) after a French soldier shot and wounded a man armed with a machete. <br /> <br />The man shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and attacked another soldier before being shot near the museum's shopping mall, police said, adding a second person had also been detained after acting suspiciously. <br /> <br />The attacker was alive but seriously wounded, the head of Paris police Michel Cadot told reporters at the scene, adding the bags he had been carrying contained no explosives. <br /> <br />An anti-terrorism inquiry has been opened, the public prosecutor said in a statement. <br /> <br />The identity and nationality of the attacker remains unknown for now, French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told reporters. <br /> <br />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 Islamist group Islamic State. <br /> <br />The country is less than three months away from a presidential election in which security and fears of terrorism are among the key issues. It has been living under a state of emergency since November 2015.
