Man with knife and fake explosive vest shot dead at Paris police station a year after Charlie Hebdo attack

Officers shot and killed a knife-wielding man wearing a fake explosive vest at a police station in northern Paris on Thursday, French officials said, a year to the day after an attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo launched a bloody year in the French capital.

Luc Poignant, a police union official, said the man cried out “Allahu akbar”, Arabic for “God is great”.

The man was wearing what looked like an explosive vest, but it was fake, according to two French police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. They said the man has not yet been identified.

Just a few minutes earlier, elsewhere in the city, French President Francois Hollande had finished paying homage to police officers killed in the line of duty, including three shot to death in attacks last January.

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A Paris police official said police were investigating the incident at the Paris police station on Thursday as “more likely terrorism” than a standard criminal act. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to be publicly named according to police policy. The neighbourhood in the Goutte d’Or district of northern Paris was locked down.