French police shot a man outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on Tuesday after he tried to attack them with a hammer and shouted "This is for Syria" in a terror incident just two days after the London attacks.

French media said the man, who claimed to be an Algerian "student", was also in possession of two kitchen knives and other unsophisticated weapons. One policeman, aged 22, was lightly injured in the neck.

Paris prosecutors have opened a counterterrorism inquiry.

French media cited a source close to the inquiry as saying the injured assailant claimed to be a "soldier of the Caliphate", presumed to be a reference to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).