German police say a Turkish man branding a knife and shouting "Allahu akbar" was shot dead as he tried to attack two officers in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday night.

The suspect, 37, reportedly used a club to smash a patrol car outside a police station and then advanced upon two officers with weapons in both hands.

After multiple warnings, a 23-year-old officer in training shot the man, killing him on the spot.

The suspect, who arrived in Germany in 2002, was already known to authorities as he had been twice investigated for possible ties to radical Islamic groups.

“The police had previously known the victim from several acts of violence, including resistance to law enforcement officers,” Die Welt reports. “Investigators confirmed ‘indications of a mental illness’ without any further details.”

According to regional Interior Minister Herbert Reul, the man came onto the radar of authorities in January, 2018, when he was clearing an area of land in a local forest in order to establish "place of prayer for Allah," according to statements he made to police.

“He had appeared mentally confused: he had declared that he was in the Islamic State, and Nazi Germany had destroyed his brain,” Die Welt reports. “The officers discovered a certificate from a closed psychiatric clinic that said he did not pose an acute danger.”

“A year later, he told police officers that he was now proselytizing for Islam. Thereupon he had been examined again.”

The attack is at least the third of its kind in Western Europe since Friday, when a jihadist wearing a fake suicide vest stabbed three people in Paris, killing one, before he was shot dead.

Hours before the Gelsenkirchen attack, a knifeman yelling 'Allahu akbar' was shot and wounded by police in Metz, France.

Additionally, a woman in a niqab carrying a large knife was arrested on Monday by police at a train station in Paris.

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff joins Matt Bracken to detail her unique experience in Europe as the daughter of an Austrian diplomat where she witnessed Islam gain momentum across society.

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(PHOTO: Stephan Witte/picture alliance via Getty Images)