'Known radical' killed in shootout after knife attack on French police

A "known radical" suspected of carrying out a knife attack in France died from injuries sustained in a shootout with police Friday, hours after he badly wounded a female officer in the latest violence directed at police in recent months.

The man, who was on a terrorist watchlist according to the interior ministry, had been on the run after the attack in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre near the western city of Nantes.

Eighty officers were dispatched to pursue him and two gendarmes were wounded during an exchange of fire that resulted in the arrest of the suspect, authorities said, with one suffering from shock.

No motive for the stabbing has emerged, but the attacker was "a known radical and suffering from a very serious psychiatric illness", one source involved in the investigation said.

After stabbing the officer at a police station, inflicting life-threatening injuries, the suspect stole her service weapon and fled on foot.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, arriving at the scene in the afternoon, confirmed that the suspect was known to police as a radical.

"This French-born French national, around 40 years old and known to police services, was released from prison in 2016 where he was pointed out because of a strict practice of Islam and radicalisation", leading to his inclusion on a watchlist of potential terrorist sympathisers, Darmanin said.

Darmanin said the suspect, who died shortly after the shootout, opened fire on the officers who then responded.

An AFP photo reporter at the scene said he heard around a dozen rounds discharged in two rapid bursts during the standoff in a residential area.

Special police forces carrying shields and wearing helmets used rubbish bins and bushes for cover as they opened fire.

One witness told AFP he saw a civilian on the ground surrounded by police after the shootout.

"The gendarmes have neutralised the individual suspected of the knife attack against the municipal police officer," Darmanin tweeted.

Pupils in the area's primary and middle schools were kept indoors while police tracked the suspect, a city official told AFP.

"We drew the curtains and told the children to lie on the ground. They've been there for two hours," one local teacher told AFP by text message during the manhunt.

La Chapelle-sur-Erdre is a town of 20,000 inhabitants just north of Nantes near the Atlantic coast. 

The attack came on the same day that Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti called on French judges to show "firmness" when dealing with people found guilty of attacks on police forces.

French police officers have demanded better protection and harsher punishment for attacks against them after a spate of assaults in the last months which shocked the country