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The attacker, who has not been named, was arrested in Rue de la Roquette, a historic suburb in the eleventh arrondissement of eastern Paris, on Monday morning. Police used a Taser to apprehend him before taking him in for questioning.

The condition of the postman, who sustained a stab wound to the throat, and passerby is not clear.

The attack comes less than 12 hours after a knifeman, reported to be an Afghan national, went on a rampage with a knife and an iron bar near a Paris canal on Sunday night.

Two British tourists in their 50s were among seven people wounded by the suspect, whose “eyes were bulging as if he was in a trance" during the stabbing spree, witnesses said.

(Image: DS)

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One of the British tourists has a chest injury while another was stabbed in the head in the attack at around 11pm local time on Sunday.

Heroic members of the public "cornered" and tackled the attacker, who fell unconscious before police arrived and arrested him.

Police are treating the incident as terrorism.

Bystanders attempted to thwart the attacker by throwing metal pentanque balls at him near a cinema on the Bassin de la Villette.

Youssef Najah, 28, said he saw a man running with a knife about 25-30 cm (10-11 inches) long.

"There were around 20 people chasing him. They started throwing petanque balls at him," Mr Najah said.

"Around four or five balls hit him in the head, but they weren't able to stop him."

Police and ambulance crews arrived on the scene shortly afterwards, witnesses said.

(Image: GETTY)

The Foreign Office said: "We are urgently investigating this incident and are in close contact with the French authorities."

While the motives for the attack remain unclear, a judicial source said it did not appear to be akin to other attacks carried out by Muslim militants in in recent years.

"Police didn't find any initial indication the attack was linked to terrorism," the source said. "But the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office is following how the investigation proceeds closely."

Paris is still on high alert for terror after suffering a series of attacks since November 2015, when Islamist gunmen allied with ISIS and suicide bombers killed 129 people in the capital.