started broadcasting with the one hour ago, started broadcasting with the one hourago, i started broadcasting with the one hour ago, i saw the police and i knew something was wrong, i did not know where it was but i know there was a commotion. we are broadcasting here, that is etoile behind us, the traffic is being redirected away from the champs—elysees, it's being directed towards concord and the street is empty, they have pulled back the cordon towards etoile and the helicopter is basically making a grand circle around the champs—elysees. it is going back down towards us. police cars are still moving around, just after we had spoken to you clearly the message had gone out on the radio that one officer had been shot and they were coming from all directions. it was bedlam. there was one unmarked police car that came tearing up the grande armee desperate to get to the champs—elysees because they did not know what had happened. the street was full of people as it is on beautiful nights like this, people walking up and down a very busy street, maybe we passed some of the people who came under attack, there isa people who came under attack, there is a visible presence of armed police on the champs—elysees as always. before we keep talking, christian, let me bring in further developments. the reuters news agency say that three police sources say the shooting in paris could have been an attempt at an armed robbery. writers have also put out a tweet from a police source saying it is probably a terrorist attack. which highlights the fact that we don't know who's responsible, we don't know who's responsible, we don't know what has happened yet. and as ever with these situations you have to be careful about what conclusions jump to be careful about what conclusions jump to. the city is on a high state of alert. we are three days from a general election and there are plenty of people in france who would like to disrupt it, so serious is it that the police are bringing in private security guards to help man some polling stations. we are still ina some polling stations. we are still in a state of emergency in france, it has been extended and they will be on the highest state of alert particularly after what has gone on. you are right to put caution on it. it isa you are right to put caution on it. it is a busy street, lots of jewellers shops on that street, it could easily have been an armed robbery as well as it could have been a terror attack. stay with us peace. we will highlight where the attack took place. if we go in closely you can see the champs—elysees is marked. i can see one eyewitnesses quoted as saying that a man got out of a car and began shooting with a kalashnikov. the bbc can't confirm that at the moment. let's bring up the newswi res, moment. let's bring up the newswires, which are coming through. a p pa re ntly apparently one shot was fired as the car stopped at a red light. all the latest news reports coming in. let's listen to a police warning to people on the champs—elysees. listen to a police warning to people on the champs-elysees. you have to stay back. please stay back. ladies and gentlemen, stay back, please.|j mean, and gentlemen, stay back, please.” mean, look exactly where this attack will have taken place. this is the champs—elysees, one of the most famous roads, not just champs—elysees, one of the most famous roads, notjust in france, in the world. we are still getting more details on precisely where the attack happened. let's speak to james reynolds who is monitoring this story from the bbc newsroom in paris. what information do you have, james? we are keeping an eye on the french channels. they suggest something similar to what you have said, there was a car, in which there was an attacker, these initial reports say he got out and fired towards the police. there are other questions to be answered, were the others in the car, what's happened to that car, with the police targeted, remember there are lots of police on the champs—elysees. our colleague christian fraser has brought these pictures. i was on a side street possibly moments after the shooting happened, my colleagues andi the shooting happened, my colleagues and i were simply walking towards the champs—elysees, we saw a small group of people running towards us, we from the champs—elysees, looking panicked, one woman said that had been a man with a gun, we could not get much more information from her. and then we saw the police taking control of the small side road from the champs—elysees ordering people to stay inside. this evening all the main residential candidates, all 11 of them are taking part in a big television event. if that's continuing? have they commented on this? they have been commenting on twitter. i haven't followed the progress of the debate, i did manage to watch the first three or four segments including one where marine le pen talked about the issue of what she called terrorism. clearly this news has dominated and the candidates have wanted to express themselves and get their points of view out on twitter. if you are just tuning in, that has been a shooting on the champs—elysees in paris. we don't know the circumstances, we don't know the circumstances, we don't know the motivation. we have had contradictory claims on that. we are best not going down the road of speculation. what we do know is that it has happened on the champs—elysees. confirmation from the french interior ministry, they say that police officers were deliberately targeted. let me bring up deliberately targeted. let me bring up another piece of information, police sources say that two attackers were involved and one was killed. i was just speaking to my colleague about that important tv debate in france, we have heard that has been suspended. each presidential candidate was going to be quizzed in front of a sizeable audience across the country but that will not be continuing as normal because of what is happening in paris. the police, as often happens in these emergency situations, are using social media to communicate, one tweet recommends that you avoid the area of the champs—elysees and as james and christian have explained they had to move, because of the police coming in again, police intervention under way, avoid the sector, follow the instructions of the police forces. let's speak to anne—elisabeth moutet, a journalist who often joins us here. you don't live far away, what have you heard? i heard it on my computer before i looked outside but i was wondering why helicopters were in the sky because they are flying over paris and normally that's forbidden. i live at the corner of two streets, one block off the champs—elysees, andi one block off the champs—elysees, and i could see police cars in my street, and it was very obvious that it was to get on the street to go to the champs—elysees, so the whole thing was being cordoned off. and then of course i got the news by television and twitter. and they talked about and attack, announced by the interior minister who said that there had been a deliberate attack against a french police officer and that the assailants were both dead. what i did not know, and had only recently, is that one of the policeman is also dead. this happened in a segment of the champs—elysees we have many shoppers, many tourists, many restau ra nts, shoppers, many tourists, many restaurants, and that would have been a place where at any time of the evening, especially the early evening, you would have close to 100,000 people between the top on the bottom of the street so potentially a place where you could have a disaster. i was going to ask you, have a disaster. i was going to ask you , even have a disaster. i was going to ask you, even at this time of the evening it would be a busy place. hugely busy. it's the time when it is most busy in the day. early evening, people are about to go and see movies at the second show or they are just see movies at the second show or they arejust coming see movies at the second show or they are just coming out of movies and there are lots of restaurants and there are lots of restaurants and many shops and open in the evening. that would be more of an incentive. if you think of something that would be a combination of leicester square and oxford street in london, that is what it is. anne—elisabeth, can you give us an idea of the scale of the operation thatis idea of the scale of the operation that is underway at the moment? the incident itself didn't involve many people but now you've got police and sta nley people but now you've got police and stanley avenue, police in the side street and helicopters overhead. —— you've got police along the avenue. every president, every mayor in paris is aware that everyone in world knows about this avenue so it is the place that is the most protected, it has brazilians and people from outside the city and tourists, and weekends you have one third of a million people there every day. and you have the ely is a palace which isjust every day. and you have the ely is a palace which is just behind a row of trees just up the bottom of the avenue, so that's many reasons for the place to be protected. anne—elisabeth, thank you very much, for the moment. we appreciate your help in covering this story. a couple of other things to share with you. a french interior ministry spokesperson said that the motives for the shooting are unknown. bear in mind that message from the french interior ministry when i show you this wire that has come in from reuters, president trump has offered his condolences after the killing of a police officer, saying it looks like another terrorist act. let's bring in christian fraser of the bbc in the champs—elysees. just to reiterate, we don't know how to describe this at the moment, do we? no, we don't. i did see mobile phone footage from the champs—elysees, somebody running this we showed me and he showed me shots on the mobile phone because he had recorded them, i could not hear the sound because of the traffic that people were running in all directions, and as anne—elisabeth has just described, the police were on the scene very quickly. i can seejust the police were on the scene very quickly. i can see just at the top of the champs—elysees armed police on both sides of the road. hotels arejust down on both sides of the road. hotels are just down that side of the champs—elysees is presumably people are being kept indoors. they are still making sure that there is no one out there. we see the helicopter going round the champs—elysees, just moments ago they turned the floodlight on the helicopter and they were pointing it down onto an area to the right—hand side of the champs around the area of the george v metro station. police down the side streets, not all the side streets but keeping a wary eye on what is going on in this part of town. it is much quieter than it would normally be. it would be quite busyin would normally be. it would be quite busy in this area, eight o'clock local time, and now you can only see a smattering of traffic which is normally very busy at this time is right. please stay with us. some other elements, cbs news has quoted president trump saying this looks like another terrorist attack but we've had no confirmation from the authorities that it is. a counterterrorism office has opened an investigation but it is an investigation and no more, this is particularly relevant to those of you watching on the bbc news channel, the british embassy is in contact with local authorities and is seeking further information following the reports of this shooting incident in paris. christian, to come back to you, can you give us an idea for the viewers who are not watching about an hour ago of the sudden influx of emergency vehicles? it was very quick. we work broadcasting at about ten to eight. suddenly from all directions police cars were coming towards us, unmarked police cars as well. the most dramatic moment at the foot of where we are broadcasting is that there's a sort of traffic light and a pedestrian crossing and a pedestrian almost got hit by a policeman who was driving as quickly as he could to get to the scene. clearly a message had gone out on the radio that they needed to respond, we have seen the helicopter overhead for about the past hour, and very quickly as well. and also at the underpass. it is an area that people use to get to the other side of the champs—elysees. the policeman i spoke to, i said, what is going on and he didn't want to talk at all, you was very jumpy and he didn't want to talk at all, you was veryjumpy so obviously he knew something serious had happened to one of his colleagues. we were talking about terrorism as we would do in the context of like this. we we re do in the context of like this. we were whether former europe minister tonight. he came to do an interview with us for 100 days. i knew his background, he was on the intelligence committee that wrote the intelligence legislation and i askedif the intelligence legislation and i asked if he thought it might affect things this weekend. he said it certainly in the minds of some voters the terror threat is there and it might encourage some people to vote from marine le pen but in the context of our question i am a lwa ys the context of our question i am always intrigued about how severe the terror threat is. he said that from what he had seen there was something like 15,000 people in france that the security services need to watch. not saying that they all severe threats but 15,000 people at any one time that have to be watched. and he said, whatever happens the other side of this election we need to step up our security and resources we have of the intelligence agencies so that they can keep track of these people. christian, thank you, we will come back to you within the hour on outside source. if you are just joining us, there has been a shooting on the champs—elysees in paris, one police officer has been killed, we don't know the motivation behind this incident. the reaction from marine le pen, leader of the national front from marine le pen, leader of the nationalfront in from marine le pen, leader of the national front in france, from marine le pen, leader of the nationalfront in france, one of from marine le pen, leader of the national front in france, one of the four main candidates to be the next president, she says in motion and solidarity for our security forces, again being targeted. in the most famous road in paris, the champs—elysees, there is the arc de triomphe which we sawjust behind christian as he was talking to us, it runs away from that. the newswi res it runs away from that. the newswires are giving updates all the time on this story. apr says one police officer has been killed and another injured, and one attacker has been shot dead, according to the police. this is really important. the french interior minister says it is too early to say what the motive is too early to say what the motive is for this attack. we are busy working on this story in the bbc newsroom in london, james reynolds is in paris, what else can you tell us,james? is in paris, what else can you tell us, james? to recap what you have just said, ros. metro stations along the champs—elysees have been closed, entirely understandable, given the police presence on the champs—elysees. like christian fraser we have heard the police helicopters overhead. we know that the police are in control of the roads next to the champs—elysees and to reiterate what christian said, this still feels like a live operation. they need to identify who the attacker was. was he known to the attacker was. was he known to the police, was involved in other activities? were there any accomplices, this activity will have to go quickly before they can reassure people that this live operation is over. would it have been normalfor operation is over. would it have been normal for police officers to been normal for police officers to be on the champs—elysees on a regular evening? on some regular evenings, yes, g|ven regular evening? on some regular evenings, yes, given the context of the last few years, if you go down the last few years, if you go down the champs—elysees at any point in the champs—elysees at any point in the last few years you might well have seen police officers and possibly soldiers as well, this morning i saw police officers blocking one particular pathway down from the arc de triomphe. i have seen soldiers in camouflage on one side st today. you see them so often that you barely notice them any more. as i was out early in the evening and seen people running away, already in the distance i saw what looked like two sirens, just reiterating what christian fraser said, although he was in a different location, the police were on the scene quickly because they had been deployed along the champs—elysees in case anything like this happened. james, iwant case anything like this happened. james, i want to bring up one newswi re james, i want to bring up one newswire that has come into the bbc newsline. reuters is quoting a police source saying the gunman killed in the shooting was known to the security services. we have no more information on that but it is interesting, as the different politicians respond to this even before we know what has happened, it is becoming inevitably politicised. it is in the first few minutes when we we re it is in the first few minutes when we were still not sure what was happening. as far as we can say, the politicians believe this was a terrorist attack. we need to be cautious and work out what the motivation is. i think it might be significant, especially of the police knew who this person was. the police knew who this person was. the police have had a lot of people in france under surveillance for different reasons. they did know who this person was they might have been able to identify the motivations and importantly for french people, whether that person was connected to a wider network of people.” whether that person was connected to a wider network of people. i just wa nt to a wider network of people. i just want to show a couple of stills that have come into the bbc newsroom. this gives an idea of the operation taking place on the champs—elysees. we cannot emphasise this enough. it is too early to identify a motive in the paris attack, although if we go back to the newswires, donald trump has been offering his condolences, after the killing of a police officer, saying that it looks like another terrorist attack. we have a clip of president trump responding to this which i can play you now. our condolences from this country to the people of france, again it has happened, i saw it as i was walking in. it is a terrible thing, a very very terrible thing going on in the world today but it looks like another terrorist attack and what can you say? itjust never ends. we have to be strong and we have to be vigilant and i have been saying and for a long time. back to james reynolds in paris. just for people joining us are we certain that one police officer has lost their life? off that is what the authorities say at this stage. in terms of what the authorities are saying, this is what they are broadcasting to the media, to the people in france. the picture thatis to the people in france. the picture that is being painted by the french interior ministry spokesperson is that there was a shooting near the champs—elysees, targeting lease officers, that needs to be confirmed, one officer was killed, we understand from broad reports broadcast on french tv that the attacker was killed. recent reports suggest that the attacker was known at the police. that could be very significant in helping police analyse the motivation and the network, if any, analyse the motivation and the network, ifany, of analyse the motivation and the network, if any, of the attacker. james, for the moment, thank you. we will come back to you in the next few minutes on outside source. that has been political reaction to what has been political reaction to what has happened in paris, the socialist candidate says, my thoughts are with the family of the policeman, benoit hamon using the word terrorism. marine le pen saying, emotion and solidarity for our security forces again targeted. back to christian fraser. some newswires say there have been further gunshots. what more can you tell us? more shots have been fired near the champs—elysees, see news reports, although we have not heard them here. francois hollande has been in the presidential headquarters, wanting to call his senior ministers to talk about what has happened. the french newspaper anne—elisabeth moutet says the attacker stopped near the champs—elysees, got out, shot at the police officers and was shot at the police officers and was shot as he ran away. as james said we still get the sense, watching the helicopter and the activity around the area at the moment that there still is a live police operation under way. i am still is a live police operation underway. iam not still is a live police operation under way. i am not sure that they are certain that there isn't someone else they are looking for. if those reports are true, and do bear in mind that people are prettyjumpy up the moment, so any loud noises people might well jump the moment, so any loud noises people might welljump to conclusions about, but according to reuters there have been other shots fired near the champs—elysees. reuters there have been other shots fired near the champs-elysees. and sifting through the information coming in. it's difficult to work out if we are talking about one person acting alone or two or three people. what have you heard? only what you are hearing at the moment, which is that one police officer may have lost his life and another may have lost his life and another may have been injured. one of the attackers may have been killed. let me show you something that we witnessed when we were standing here broadcasting with you a little earlier. can you see this on the computer? this was a bus parked on the other side of etoile. it was going around the roundabout and suddenly the police cars surrounded the bus and stopped it. i don't know what they thought was on it, there we re what they thought was on it, there were plenty of buses around but this one they had a particular focus on. they pulled everyone who was on the bus off. they had their body armour on, they were armed police, heavily armed police surrounding it, and it was therefore probably about half an hour to one hour before the bus moved off. does that tell us that they were looking for someone else? i don't know because they had shot the attacker on the champs—elysees according to the reports we've heard but if they stopped this bus is possible they thought that someone else was on the run and maybe that person had got onto a bus at the top of the champs—elysees and was trying to get away from the scene, it was interesting that they picked on that particular bus. thank you, christian. there has been a shooting on the champs—elysees in the centre of paris. these are live pictures. the reuters news agency says shots have been fired at a new location near the champs—elysees. that's according to a police source. the police have said that one police officer has lost their life and another has been injured. the french interior ministry has emphasised explicitly that they do not know the motivation behind what happened on the champs—elysees. just to highlight to those of you watching, many of you will know this very famous avenue, right in the centre of paris with the arc de triomphe at one end of it. let's speak to christian fraser again. we talked about the political context of this, the other context is the fact that paris has experienced many traumas involving attacks in the last 18 months. i think it has an accumulative effect on the population in paris especially on a night like this. it was interesting as an observer to watch how people reacted to what was going on. as soon as police started going in one direction, we saw a group of youngsters who had come to look at the eternal flame and they were told to clear etoile as quickly as they could and immediately they panicked. maybe the rumour of gunshots had gone around, but they started running everywhere and it was difficult for the police to control them and keep everyone calm. everyonejumps them and keep everyone calm. everyone jumps to the same conclusion because they have bitter experience of previous attacks. it is not only the charlie hebdo attack and the bataclan attack which were horrendous, but peppered through those months there have been cou ntless those months there have been countless attacks on the police. and according to the french media wires that i can see, they claimed the police were specifically targeted in this attack. we've seen policemen before stabbed from behind, in la defense, while protecting the public, they are conscious that they are public, they are conscious that they a re targets public, they are conscious that they are targets for someone who might come up behind them and they don't expect it to try to hurt one of them and kill one of them. it sounds as if it might have been the case tonight. christian, thank you. for those viewers justjoining us, tonight. christian, thank you. for those viewersjustjoining us, let's remind ourselves of what is happening. there's been a shooting in the champs—elysees in the centre of paris, one police officer has lost his or her life, the authorities say another has been wounded. there are other elements to the story which we can bring you. some of which are confirmed, others not. this is the reuters news agency picking up on what christian said. there are reports that shots had been fired at a new location near the champs—elysees, according to one police source speaking to reuters. know the political reaction as well. remember it is round one of the french presidential election on sunday. his use of the word