French police on Sunday shot and wounded a terrorist who was rushing towards a group of policemen with a knife in the Alsacian city of Metz, local officials said.

The incident came just two days after a man went on a knife rampage in the suburb of Villejuif on the edge of Paris on Jan. 3, killing one person and wounding two. The Villejuif attacker was subsequently shot dead by police.

The Metz local public prosecutor's office said it was in contact with the French anti-terrorism prosecutor's department over the incident, while French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner added that he would be monitoring the situation closely.

"I praise the quick thinking of the @PoliceNat57 [Moselle police force], which intervened to apprehend the individual. A probe is underway to determine the precise motivation and circumstances behind the act," Castaner wrote on Twitter.

The Metz local prosecutor's office said the suspect suffered gunshot wounds to the thigh before being taken away. It added that the suspect, whom it did not name, was on an official list of those monitored for links to terrorist groups.

Paris has suffered major attacks by terrorists in recent years. Co-ordinated bombings and shootings in November 2015 at the Bataclan theatre and other sites around Paris killed 130 people – the deadliest attacks in France since World War Two.