Champs-Élysées‬‬ attack: 1 police officer killed, another injured in Paris shooting

A police officer was killed and another when a gunman opened fire late Thursday on the famed Champs-Élysées shopping district in Paris, officials said.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.

The French Interior Ministry said the shooting attack deliberately targeted police officers guarding the area. Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said on BFM television that a man came out of a car and opened fire on the police vehicle.

Brandet said the police officers were "deliberately" targeted, and that police are securing the area.

An eyewitness told Reuters a man got out of a car and began shooting "with a kalashnikov."

Authorities warned people in the heart of the French capital to avoid the area after the shooting, France 24 reported.

Many police vehicles can be seen on the avenue that passes many of the city's most iconic landmarks.

A witness identified only as Ines told French television station BFM that she heard a shooting, saw a man's body on the ground and the area was quickly evacuated by police.

President Trump said the shooting "looks like another terrorist attack" during a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, and sent his condolences to France.

French President Francois Hollande scheduled an emergency meeting late Thursday following the shooting attack.

The incident on Thursday was similar to two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris, one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.

The attack came three days before the first round of balloting in France's tense presidential election.

Security is high preceding the vote after police said they arrested two men Tuesday in what they described as a thwarted terror attack.

France has been in a state of emergency following a series of terrorist attacks, including the the November 2015 attacks, which targeted the Bataclan concert hall and Stade de France sports arena in Paris and the deadly truck attack in Nice on Bastille Day in July 2016.

The state of emergency has been extended by several parliamentary votes and remains in effect.