The attacker was slain by police, and the Paris prosecutor's anti-terrorism unit opened an investigation after what officials described as an attempted attack on the police station in the city's north.
Found on the man's body was a cell phone, a piece of paper with an emblem of the Islamic State group, and "an unequivocal written claim of responsibility in Arabic." The prosecutor's office did not provide details about what the claim meant.
Soldiers were posted in front of schools and security forces were even more present than usual amid a series of tributes to the dead.
Officials said the man shot to death today threatened officers at the entrance of a police station near the Montmartre neighborhood, home to the Sacre Coeur Cathedral.
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Just moments before, French President Francois Hollande, speaking in a different location, paid respects to officers fallen in the line of duty.
Alexis Mukenge, who saw the shooting from inside another building, told the network iTele that police told the man, "Stop. Move back." Mukenge said officers fired twice and the man immediately dropped to the ground.
The Goutte d'Or neighborhood in Paris' 18th arrondissement, a multi-ethnic district not far from the Gare du Nord train station, was briefly locked down, and two metro lines running through the area were halted. They reopened after about two hours today.
Nora Borrias was unable to get to her home in the neighborhood because of the barricades. Shaken by the incident, she said "it's like the Charlie Hebdo affair isn't over.