FRENCH AUTHORITIES ARE searching for two assailants who shot a police officer in a government security building outside Paris.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the officer surprised the two attackers during his rounds early Sunday, and one of them grabbed his gun and shot him.

A national police official, speaking anonymously, said the man is hospitalised but his life is not in danger.

Special security forces surrounded and searched the building in the suburb of Pantin for the two suspects did not find them, Brandet said on France-Info radio.

He said it’s unclear why the men were in the Interior Ministry complex, which includes a police vehicle garage, a shooting range and a gun room.

French authorities remain tense since Islamic extremist attacks in January left 20 people dead, including the three attackers.