A French Muslim man had to be held back by security staff after he attempted to lunge at the mayor of Paris.

The man, who has been identified as former regional councillor Farod Smahi, had to be hauled away from Anne Hidalgo yesterday as she left the Marks & Spencer store where terrorist Karim Cheurfi was gunned down by police on Thursday night.

Cheurfi, 39, drove his silver Audi on to the Champs Elysee, the most famous street in the French capital, and 'targeted' officers using a Kalashnikov on Thursday night.

The ISIS fanatic killed 37-year-old policeman Xavier Jugele as he sat in a patrol van at a red light and hit another police officer in the chest, but he survived because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.

Farod Smahi had to be hauled away from Anne Hidalgo as she left the Marks & Spencer store where terrorist Karim Cheurfi was gunned down by police on Thursday night

Mr Smahi accused Ms Hidalgo of only coming to the Champs Elysee as a publicity stunt and called her a 'criminal'

Cheurfi then tried to run away with his rifle and wounded a third officer before being gunned down near a Marks & Spencer store on the world-famous avenue.

Mr Smahi claimed that terrorism had not been discussed during debates for the upcoming Presidential election until Thursday's attack, and accused Ms Hidalgo of only coming to the Champs Elysee as a publicity stunt.

In particular, he vocally slammed France's controversial 'S-Card' system, which is designed to flag up individuals who pose a potential terror threat but has been widely criticised for its ineffectiveness.

He said, 'Not one candidate spoke about the dead in Nice, the Bataclan, and still it continues.

'But now, yesterday, they all opened their big mouths. It's because they're pandering to the Muslims of France.

'I was a Muslim, I'm not anymore. I'm ashamed.'

He vocally slammed France's controversial 'S-Card' system, which is designed to flag up individuals who pose a potential terror threat but has been widely criticised for its ineffectiveness

Mr Smahi claimed that terrorism had not been discussed during debates for the upcoming Presidential election until Thursday's attack

Mr Smahi labelled Ms Hidalgo - who has been mayor since 2014 - and other politicians as 'criminals' for pandering to Muslims and cosying up to countries that impose Sharia Law.

He added: They come here showing off, on the blood of a policeman who had his life taken, leaving a wife and a child.

'I accuse the governments, they are all responsible for all of these Muslims - and I'm a Muslim - who get their wives turbaned and then stare at our wives.

'These governments, these presidents who shake the hands of the Saudis, even though their women aren't allowed to drive.

'But now they can say, "I was at the Elysee". I'm ashamed, I'm ashamed.'

France goes to the polls tomorrow in the first round of its presidential elections, with the nation reeling from Thursday's attack.

ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for the incident and Cheurfi was known to the authorities because he had a long string of police-hating convictions.

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo leaves flowers at the scene where policeman Xavier Jugele was fatally shot

Mr Smahi labelled Ms Hidalgo - who has been mayor since 2014 - and other politicians as 'criminals'

He was jailed for 20 years after trying to kill officers in 2001 but prosecutors tonight denied Cheurfi was on a security watch list and added he showed no signs of radicalisation before the attack.

French officials revealed that Cheurfi was detained in Meaux, 24 miles east of Paris, on February 23 this year, after it emerged he was trying to buy weapons 'to kill police'. He was let go in March due to lack of evidence.

French security services are under immense pressure as they face troubling questions as to how they failed to prevent him from carrying out the attack.

Details of Cheurfi's terrifying career as a determined criminal was outlined by Paris prosecutor Francois Molins during a press conference in the capital city on Friday evening.

Mr Molins said: 'Karim Cheurfi was known to the police and the judiciary. In the course of 2017, he sought to obtain weapons and made statements suggesting that he wanted to kill policemen.'

Referring to a commuter town north east of Paris, Mr Molins said: 'The prosecutor's office in Meaux opened a preliminary investigation on 13 January 2017.

Pictured (left and right) is the suspected ISIS gunman, who has been identified locally as 39-year-old Karim Cheurfi

'He was taken into custody on 23 February 2017 and his home was searched. He had hunting knives, masks from the film Scream and a GoPro camera.

'But these elements were not sufficient to provide proof that he wanted to carry out a threat of assassination. For example, he said the masks were for a local carnival.'

Mr Molins added: 'At that stage, no link with the radical Islamist movement was apparent. Nothing justified further investigations by my office.'

Cheurfi, who was born in France, was a recluse who blamed police for ruining his life, a friend of the family revealed today.

He did not attend formal mosque prayer services and became fascinated by jihadist propaganda via the internet, a confident of his mother claimed. He also drank alcohol and smoked cannabis.

Traffic officer Xavier Jugele (pictured), 37, died instantly with a shot to the head, while the other two were hurt before Cheurfi himself was gunned down by nearby armed police

'Karim did not pray, he drank alcohol and watched jihadist propaganda,' neighbour Hakim, 50, told MailOnline.

'He was not a good Muslim, he was a lost soul. He had no friends, no girlfriend, he never went out. He stayed at home all day watching stuff on the internet.'

Another neighbour added: 'Karim didn't go to the mosque. He just stayed at home. You never saw him.'

Hakim continued: 'Karim blamed the police for ruining his life. He fired (a pistol) at police during a burglary and got sentenced to 15 years prison.

'He was only 20 at the time. He hated the police, he said they had ruined his life. He was 'anti-cop'. He would swear at officers in the street, call them bastards. He didn't care.'

In January, it is understood that he used Amazon to buy two knives, a GoPro video camera – which sick jihadists use to film their atrocities – and sinister masks from the 1996 US horror film Scream.

But Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the items ‘were not sufficient to provide proof that he wanted to carry out a threat of assassination’. ‘For example, he said the masks were for a local carnival,’ he said.