French President Francois Hollande said that a shooting on the Champs Elysees on Thursday evening was suspected to be "of a terrorist nature."

He promised "absolute vigilance" in the next two days ahead of presidential elections on Sunday and paid tribute to a policeman killed in the shooting as well as another two injured officers.

Hollande called an extraordinary cabinet meeting late Thursday upon the Champs-Elysées terror attack which left two policemen dead.

Paris police said a gunman killed two policemen before being killed himself in an attack on the Champs-Elysées shopping district.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station Thursday night at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.

The attack came three days before the first round of balloting in France's tense presidential election. Security is high preceding the vote after police said they arrested two men Tuesday in what they described as a thwarted terror attack.

The incident recalled two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris, one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.

A witness identified only as Ines told French television station BFM that she heard a shooting and saw a man's body on the ground before police quickly evacuated the area where she works in a shop.