A MAN wanted over the terror attack on Paris famed Champs-Elysees has handed himself into police.

The suspect was taken in by Belgian police on Friday evening, France’s interior ministry said.

“The man in the wanted notice issued by Belgian authorities presented himself to a police station in Antwerp,” ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told AFP.

The suspect was not named in the report.

Speaking after a meeting Friday morning of the government’s security council, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said: “Barbarity and cowardice struck Paris last night, as they also recently struck elsewhere in Europe — in Berlin, Stockholm, in London.”

He said “the whole of Europe is targeted because it represents the values and ideals of peace.” He said more than 50,000 police and gendarmes are mobilized to protect Sunday’s first-round vote in the two-stage election, with an additional 7,000 soldiers also on patrol.

He added that the intelligence services are working “in the shadows” and elite intervention police forces are also on alert. He said “nothing must hamper this democratic moment, essential for our country.” The prime minister appealed for national unity and for people “not to succumb to fear.”

The announcement came after the Champs-Elysees boulevard reopened after a gunman opened fire on police, killing one officer and wounding three people before police shot and killed him.

The prime suspect, known as 39-year-old Karim Cheurfi, was also a known terror suspect, sources close to the investigation say.

The Paris prosecutor’s office leading the investigation of the Champs-Elysees gun attack says investigators found a pump-action shotgun and knives in the gunman’s car.

‘THE BELGIAN’

The claims come as the first picture of the gunman was released.

On the famous avenue in the heart of Paris, municipal workers in white hygiene suits were out before dawn to wash down the sidewalk where the assault took place — a scene now depressingly familiar after multiple attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France in little over two years.

Delivery trucks did their early morning rounds; everything would have seemed normal were it not for the row of TV trucks parked up along the boulevard that is a must-visit for tourists.

Cheurfi’s photograph comes after police issued an arrest warrant for the second suspect who arrived from Belgium by train, according to Reuters.

Cheurfi had previously been identified by Islamic State under the alias Abu Yusuf al-Beljiki, “the Belgian”, indicating he was Belgian or had lived in Belgium.

“The perpetrator of the attack in Champs Elysees in central Paris is Abu Yusuf the Belgian and he is one of the Islamic State’s fighters,” IS claimed in a statement by the jihadists’ propaganda agency Amaq.

But Belgium’s interior minister says Islamic State gave a false name for the man who attacked police.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said: “The guy who yesterday did the act was not a Belgian. He was French.”

Asked about the Abu Yusuf Al-Beljiki pseudonym given by IS, Jambon said he “is certainly not the guy who committed the crime yesterday.”

IS described the shootings as an attack “in the heart of Paris”. Police have also searched a home in the suburb of Chelles believed to be the dead attacker’s.

A police document obtained by The Associated Press identifies the address searched in the town of Chelles as the family home of Karim Cheurfi.

Police surrounded the quiet, middle-class neighbourhood and worried neighbours expressed surprise at the operation.

AFP quoted sources close to the inquiry who said the gunman had been under investigation by anti-terrorist officers for having shown an intention to kill police.

The suspect was arrested in February on suspicion of plotting to kill officers but was released because of a lack of evidence, the sources said.

Archive reports by French newspaper Le Parisian show Cheurfi was convicted of attacking a police officer in 2001.

He was armed and behind the wheel of a stolen car, which hit another vehicle, sources close to the investigation said.

He fled on foot before the driver of the other car and the passenger — a trainee police officer — caught up with him. He fired twice, seriously wounding both men in the chest.

He was arrested and placed in custody under a false name.

Two days later he seriously injured an officer who was taking him out of his cell, seizing his weapon and firing several times.

He had been convicted in 2005 of three counts of attempted murder, with two of these against police officers, sources said.

A female tourist was slightly wounded in her knee by shrapnel during the shooting, according to a police source, who did not provide the woman’s nationality.

Gunfire was also heard in a second location nearby, French media had initially reported. But during the evening, the spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior stated that there was “no other security intervention in progress on the Champs Elysées”, contrary to some rumours.

Police officers guarding a metro station in the centre of the Champs Elysees shopping district were gunned down about 9pm Thursday Paris time (5am Friday AEST), when the area was busy with people visiting restaurants and bars.

The gunman used an automatic weapon akin to a “war weapon.”

Officers then shot and killed the assailant.

The police officer who was killed was 37 years old, Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told AP.

French interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told reporters the shooting started when a car stopped alongside a stationary police vehicle.

The officer who was killed in the attack was shot while in the police car waiting at a red light, a police union representative said on Twitter.

“A man immediately got out and opened fire on the police car, fatally wounding a police officer ... He also wounded a second one, it would seem very seriously,” he said.

It is possible at least one accomplice may have escaped.

Brandet said officers were “deliberately” targeted, as has happened repeatedly to French security forces in recent years, including in the run-up to the 2012 election.

One officer was pronounced dead at the scene, while the two injured officers are being treated in hospital. France’s Interior Ministry has said that one of the two injured police officers is no longer in a life-threatening condition. The car was abandoned at the scene.

ATTACK ON EVE OF ELECTION

The incident comes despite France being on red alert for a possible terrorist attack in the final countdown to Sunday’s first-round presidential election.

French conservative politician Francois Fillon, a candidate in France’s presidential election, says campaigning should be suspended following the shooting in Paris.

Fillon and fellow candidate, the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, cancelled campaign events scheduled for Friday, on what will be the last day of campaigning before the first round of voting in the presidential election.

Le Pen has been campaigning against mass Muslim migration and has been repeatedly warning of a terror attack.

The shooting comes two days after the arrest of two men in southern Marseilles with weapons and explosives who were suspected of preparing an attack to disrupt the campaign.

Thousands of troops and armed police have been deployed to guard tourist hot spots such as the Champs Elysees or other potential targets including government buildings and religious sites.

‘WE SHALL BE OF THE UTMOST VIGILANCE’

Speaking after the attack, French President Francois Hollande said security forces would be vigilant during the forthcoming presidential election.

An emergency meeting of security, defence and intelligence top officials would be held on Friday, he said in a televised statement on Thursday night.

Hollande, who is not running again for office, said: “We shall be of the utmost vigilance, especially in relation to the election.”

Police sources earlier told French media it appeared the incident was terror-related.

There were earlier reports it may have been an armed robbery gone wrong, but police have launched a terrorism inquiry and all indications are that it is terror-related.

TURNBULL CAUTIONS AUSSIES IN EUROPE

Malcolm Turnbull has offered Australia’s prayers for police officers who were shot in Paris and urged Australians in Europe to be wary.

The PM urged Australian travellers to check for security warnings on the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

“Everywhere — but especially in Europe at the moment — pay close attention to your surroundings,” he told the Seven Network today.

Mr Turnbull said regional security will be among the topics he discusses with US Vice President Mike Pence, who arrives in Sydney today.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump condemned the shooting, saying: “It just never ends. We have to be strong and we have to be vigilant.”

A month ago, a would-be terrorist shot and wounded a police officer at a roadblock before being shot dead after attacking three soldiers at Orly Airport in suburban Paris.

Trump addresses Paris shooting: “It just never ends. We have to be strong and we have to be vigilant.” https://t.co/8N5aXgFesJ — NBC News (@NBCNews) April 20, 2017

ATTACK AT THE HEART OF PARIS

The attack occurred on the most famous avenue in Paris, not far from another landmark, the Arc de Triomphe.

The bustling shopping street in the heart of the city was immediately blocked by armed officers after the attack and nearby metro stations were closed.

The gunfire sent scores of tourists fleeing into side streets.

“They were running, running,” said 55-year-old Badi Ftaiti, who lives in the area.

“Some were crying. There were tens, maybe even hundreds of them.”

“We had to hide our customers in the basement,” Choukri Chouanine, manager of a restaurant near the site of the shooting, told AFP, saying there was “lots of gunfire.”

A spokesman for the interior ministry Pierre-Henry Brandet paid tribute to the fast reflexes of police at the scene who managed to kill the gunman and prevent further bloodshed on a busy springtime evening.

Like the attacks in late 2015 on the Bataclan Theatre and the 10th arrondissement restaurants, it appeared designed to strike at the cultural heart of one of Europe’s most important cities.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press the gunman targeted police who were guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt metro station.

Paris police used Twitter to ask people to stay away.

“Police operation taking place in the Champs Elysee area,” they said.

“Avoid the area and comply with police instructions.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said: “The attacker was shot dead by police and the area remains cordoned off.’’

Mr Brandet said a robbery may have been carried out at the same time as the attack but it is not clear if the two are linked.

French TV channel BFM broadcast footage of the Arc de Triomphe monument and top half of the Champs Elysees packed with police vans, lights flashing and heavily armed police shutting the area down after what was described by one journalist as a major exchange of fire near a Marks and Spencers store.

Coming back from a run, Champs Elysées is a mess.. #paris pic.twitter.com/CTwRuqDCAQ — Ralph (@vanderpauw) April 20, 2017

A witness identified only as Ines told French television station BFM she heard gunshots and saw a man’s body on the ground before police quickly evacuated the area.

France is in a state of emergency and at its highest possible level of alert since a string of terror attacks that began in 2015, which have killed more than 230 people.