Police Shoot Attacker Outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris<br />By AURELIEN BREEDEN and BENOÎT MORENNEJUNE 6, 2017<br />PARIS — A police officer shot and wounded an assailant armed with a hammer<br />and kitchen knives on the square outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Tuesday afternoon, according to the authorities.<br />In April, days before the first round of France’s presidential elections, an attacker opened<br />fire on a police van on the Champs-Élysées, killing one officer and wounding two others.<br />Gérard Collomb, the French interior minister, told reporters<br />that the attack occurred around 4:20 p.m. when the man approached three police officers from behind and started hitting one of them with a hammer.<br />Speaking to the newspaper Le Parisien this week, Mr. Collomb, the interior minister, said<br />that terrorist threats were "extremely high" in Europe and that security forces in France were more vigilant than ever.<br />The cathedral, a Gothic landmark on the Île de la Cité in the Seine, across from the headquarters of the Paris police prefecture, was sealed off,<br />and about 900 visitors and worshipers were told not to leave until the situation was declared safe.<br />The attacker was carrying an identity card describing him as an Algerian student, Mr. Collomb said, adding<br />that investigators still needed to verify his identity, as well as his motivations.
