Police shoot and kill knifeman at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris

The man was seen bothering security staff before producing a weapon

Police at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris. Getty Images

Police shot dead a man brandishing a knife on Wednesday at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris.

Officers "neutralised a threatening individual in possession of a knife," the city's police department said on its Twitter account.

An airport source told AFP the incident occurred at the busy Terminal 2F at about 8.20am local time when "a homeless man started bothering security agents and border police were called in to remove him".

Initially, the man left while yelling curses but soon returned and brought out a knife. One of the officers then fired his weapon.

An AFP photographer who witnessed the scene said "a large person of colour brandished something that looked like a knife at the police".

"He was ordered to stop but kept advancing towards them, and an officer fired a single shot."

The man was quickly put on a stretcher and removed from the scene, the photographer said.

The man showed “signs of aggression”, had refused to obey police orders and was allegedly seen running towards police, French radio station RTL said.

Le Parisien reported that border police came across the man while on patrol at the airport and had asked him to move. He reportedly refused to obey the order.

A source told the French daily newspaper that the man initially tried to punch one of the officers before taking out a knife.

The man suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach, a witness said.

The man, believed to have been in his 30s, was reportedly a regular face at the airport.

Security forces in France have been on high alert for terrorist attacks since the country suffered a wave of killings by Muslim terrorists. More than 250 people in France have been killed in terrorist attacks since 2015, in incidents often carried out by so-called “lone wolves”.