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Panicked passengers fled in terror as a knifeman was arrested at Paris' Gare du Nord station just a day before the French presidential vote.
The drama happened on a day of unrest in the French capital, during which police released tear gas after being pelted with flares and other makeshift weapons in a pre-election riot.
Footage of the station arrest shows armed police surround the man, who was restrained on the ground.
Panicked passengers abandoned their luggage as they fled, and boarding of Eurostar services was briefly suspended this afternoon. Police sources say the arrested man is a 20-year-old from Mali.
Tensions are high across France following Thursday night's ISIS-inspired assassination of police officer Xavier Jugele by fanatic Karim Cheurfi at the Champs Elysee.
Today masked protesters hurled bottles and stones at legions of officers who flooded central Paris following the killing. A 200-strong mob hijacked a peaceful rally organised by left-wing unions and communists.
Voters will go to the polls tomorrow in the first round of the country's presidential election.
Describing the incident at Gare de Nord, a French police official said that a man carrying a knife walked into the station and was flagged to officers, who arrested him immediately before anyone could be harmed.
French TV network BFMTV reports that the man did not resist arrest, and a police source said he claimed he was carrying the knife because he was afraid for his life. He was not previously known to police.
Another police source added that the arrest caused a 'panic movement' with a number of travellers abandoning their luggage in the middle of the station.
One police source said that some people saw the man, a 20-year-old Malian, 'inside the station, knife in hand' and pointed him out to police, who detained him.
The station was briefly closed before reopening around 4pm. Boarding for Eurostar trains to London was also suspended for a short time, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The Gare de Nord is one of the French capital's top transit hubs, serving the city's metro, suburban trains as well as intercity and high-speed trains like the Eurostar from London.
He was told to lie down and followed the orders before he was arrested.
The scene led panic among passengers who tried to flee the scene, a witness said, adding that trains have been delayed.
It comes less than 48 hours after Thursday's murder of police officer Xavier Jugele by ISIS fanatic Karim Cheurfi.
Cheurfi, 39, drove his silver Audi on to the Champs Elysee, the most famous street in the French capital, and 'targeted' officers using a Kalashnikov on Thursday night.
He killed the 37-year-old policeman as he sat in a patrol van at a red light and hit another police officer in the chest, but he survived because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.