French authorities are searching for two assailants who shot a police officer in a government security building in the Paris suburb of Pantin on Sunday.

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Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the officer surprised the two attackers during his rounds early Sunday.

One of the assailants grabbed the officer's sidearm and shot him.

A national police official, speaking anonymously as per custom, told AP the policeman was hospitalised but his life was not in danger.

Special security forces surrounded and searched the building in the suburb of Pantin for the two suspects but did not find them, Brandet said on FRANCE 24.

Brandet added that “at this early stage in the investigation we believe that this was probably a burglary that went wrong” at the interior ministry complex, which includes a police vehicle garage.

French authorities remain tense since Islamic extremist attacks in January left 20 people dead, including the three attackers.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

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