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A female police officer is critically injured after she was stabbed in the throat in a Paris suburb, it has been reported.

The attacker was shot dead by police following the incident, which happened in the Vincennes area of this city this morning.

Le Figaro newspaper reported that a 29-year-old man stabbed a policewoman after he first tried to attack a nurse.

When officers arrived at the scene, the man turned on the policeman and reportedly injured her throat.

According to local media reports the attacker was killed by police amid an exchange of gunfire.

Police have not yet disclosed a motive for the attack.

France has been on high alert for the past year following a series of Islamic State attacks across the country, including November's Paris attacks, which left more than a hundred people dead, and this summer's Bastille Day attack where a truck ploughed into crowds in Nice.