© Bertrand Guay, AFPFrench police officials stand near a police station in Rambouillet, south-west of Paris, on April 23, 2021, after a woman was stabbed to death in the town.
The attack took place in the secure entrance area of a police station in Rambouillet, a wealthy commuter town 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Paris, at around 2:20pm, police sources said.
The woman, 48, an administrative employee in the station, was stabbed in the throat twice, police sources added. The attacker, a Tunisian residing in France on legitimate papers, was fatally wounded when officers opened fire on him at the station.
He scouted out the scene before launching the attack, an official with the prosecutor's office said, and shouted "Allahu Akbar" or "God is Greatest" during the assault, according to a source close to the investigation. He was not previously known to France's security agencies.
The national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office said it has taken over the case, opening an investigation into murder of a person of public authority in relation with a terrorist group. Officials at the prosecutor's office would not provide further details.
"France has lost one its everyday heroines in a barbaric gesture of infinite cowardice," said Prime Minister Jean Castex at the scene of the attack.
France has faced a series of attacks blamed on Islamist radicals in recent years that have cost the lives of hundreds of people.
Friday's attack comes six months after an Islamist teenager beheaded a school teacher in Conflans, another Paris satellite town.
Tackling religious extremism, domestic security and notions of French identity are likely to be important issues in next year's presidential election.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters & AP)
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