Man shot dead after fatally stabbing four cops in Paris

• The attacker was reported to be a member of staff inside the building.
• The police have sealed off the area in the île de la Cité where the incident occurred.

(Karachi) A knife-wielding man has killed four cops outside Central Police Headquarters in Paris, French media reported on Thursday.

The attacker, who was reported to be a member of staff inside the building, was later shot dead by police. The police have sealed off the area in the île de la Cité - in the centre of Paris – where the attack took place.

The attack happened at about 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT) in the courtyard of the police building. It comes a day after French police went on strike across the country over increasing violence towards officers and rising suicide rates within the force.

President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner have all gone to the site.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo confirmed on Twitter that "several people" had been killed in the attack, which took place near major tourist sites including the Notre-Dame cathedral.

According to French media, the attacker was a 45-year-old man who had worked in an administrative capacity for the Paris police force for 20 years.

They said he had been working in the police force's intelligence division.

"Police were running around in panic," an eyewitness who was inside the courtyard at the time of the attack told Le Parisien newspaper.

"I was surprised to hear shooting because this is not a place where you hear that kind of thing. I first thought it was a suicide because there are a lot of those at the moment," he added.