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Four police officers in Paris stabbed to death

In Paris, people stand behind police tape near the police headquarters where  four police officers were fatally stabbed. Picture by AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu
In Paris, people stand behind police tape near the police headquarters where  four police officers were fatally stabbed. Picture by AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu In Paris, people stand behind police tape near the police headquarters where  four police officers were fatally stabbed. Picture by AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu

Four police officers have died in a knife attack by an employee at Paris police headquarters, a French police union official said.

A man armed with a knife attacked officers and was fatally shot, according to the union official.

Union official Loic Travers said the attack appears to have begun in an office and continued elsewhere inside the large compound across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral.

Mr Travers said the motive is unknown but the employee allegedly responsible for the violence apparently never posed any problems before.

He said he cannot remember an attack on police officers of this magnitude.

Emery Siamandi, an employee at police headquarters, said he heard gunshots and immediately saw two officers come outside an office weeping.

A third officer, who Mr Siamandi described as the person who shot and killed the assailant, came out on his knees, also in tears.

The attack came a day after thousands of officers marched in Paris to protest against low wages, long hours and increasing suicides in their ranks.

France's interior minister and the Paris prosecutor were on their way to the scene.

Extremists have repeatedly targeted French police in France in recent years.

In 2017, a gunman opened fire on the Champs-Elysees boulevard, killing one officer before he was shot to death.

In 2016, an attack inspired by the Islamic State group killed a police officer and his companion, an administrator, at their home in front of their child.