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Alain Jocard / AFP / Getty Images

A French soldier opened fire on a machete-wielding man who threatened security personnel outside Paris's Louvre museum on Friday morning, police said.

The museum and nearby metro stations were closed following what the French Interior Ministry described as a “serious public security incident.”

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve described the attacker as “terrorist in nature.”

Paris police chief Michel Cadot said that a lone man armed with a machete ran at military personnel and police stationed outside the museum, after which one soldier opened fire.

Christian Hartmann / Reuters

“We are dealing with an attack from an individual who was clearly aggressive and represented a direct threat, and whose comments lead us to believe that he wished to carry out a terrorist incident,” Cadot said. Two backpacks carried by the attacker were searched and found to contain no explosives, police added.

The attacker is alive, and a soldier sustained a head injury. Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux is on his way to visit the wounded soldier, spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.

Brandet added that a second person had been arrested at the scene, but that officials were “cautious” over the role she may have played. Some 1,000 visitors to the museum were safely moved to secure areas following the incident.

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