The Islamic state militant group have claimed responsibility of an attack which took the like of a French policeman who was shot dead and two others were wounded in central Paris on Thursday night.

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The attack hppened just days before presidential elections and it was quickly claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

President Francois Hollande said he was convinced the "cowardly killing" on the Champs Elysees boulevard, in which the assailant was himself shot dead by police, was an act of terrorism.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the man had been identified, but investigators were still assessing if he had accomplices.

 France has lived under a state of emergency since 2015 and has suffered a spate of Islamist militant attacks mostly perpetrated by young men who grew up in France and Belgium and that have killed more than 230 people in the past two years.