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PARIS (AP) — A man with severe schizophrenia who had been on a watch list for Islamic radicalism stabbed a police officer at her station Friday in western France and shot two other officers before police killed him
The slain suspect was a Frenchman in his 40s who had been on a watch list for Islamic radicalism because of his “rigorous” religious practices
The assailant had recently been released from prison and was under monitoring by psychiatric services
The three officers were wounded but none is in life-threatening condition
The motive for the violence in the Nantes suburb of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre was unclear
but Darmanin told reporters at the scene that the man “clearly wanted to attack police.”
The attacker was born in France and did not have any past convictions for terrorism-related crimes
entered the police station Friday morning saying he had a car problem
He then stabbed the first police officer inside the station
The officer was wounded in the leg and hand
search dogs and more than 200 officers to find the suspect
The suspect was gravely wounded in an ensuing shootout
who was not authorized to be publicly named
said authorities are not searching for any accomplices
called for “all efforts to clarify the circumstances” of the attack and to better protect France
Police and ambulances blocked roads in the normally quiet
Domestic security and attacks on police are a big political issue ahead of regional elections next month and France's presidential election next year
Two police employees have been killed in France in recent weeks
One was an administrative official stabbed to death inside her police station near Paris in what authorities are investigating as an Islamic extremist attack
The other was a drug squad officer shot to death in the southern city of Avignon
had been on the run after the attack in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre near the city of Nantes
and 80 officers were dispatched to pursue him
After stabbing the officer at a police station
A source close to the investigation said her injuries were life-threatening
but the attacker was "radicalised and suffering from a very serious psychiatric illness"
one source involved in the investigation said
Three French gendarmes were wounded -- in the hand and in the arm -- in the operation that resulted in the arrest of the suspect
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin was on his way to the scene
He said on Twitter that the individual arrested was suspected of carrying out the attack
Pupils in the area's primary and middle schools were kept indoors
La Chapelle-sur-Erdre is a small town of 20,000 inhabitants just north of Nantes near the French Atlantic coast
The attack came on the same day that Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti called on French judges to show "firmness" when dealing with people found guilty of attacks on police forces
All such cases of violence should go before a criminal court
he said in a memo to investigating magistrates seen by AFP
French police officers have demanded better protection and harsher punishment for attacks against them after a spate of attacks in the last months which shocked the country
officer Eric Masson was shot dead while investigating activity at a known drug-dealing site in the southern city of Avignon
Masson's death came after the April 23 killing of Stephanie Monferme
a police employee who was stabbed to death in the town of Rambouillet outside Paris in the latest jihadist attack in France
There was no immediate indication that the French authorities intended to open a terror probe into Friday's attack
Nantes prosecutors could not immediately comment
Several attacks over the last year have reignited concerns about the spread of radical Islam inside France as well as immigration
a Pakistani man wounded two people with a meat cleaver outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
a young Chechen refugee beheaded teacher Samuel Paty who had showed some of the caricatures to his pupils
three people were killed when a recently arrived Tunisian went on a stabbing spree in a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice
In the most severe recent attack against French police
three officers and one police employee were stabbed to death in October 2019 by a IT specialist colleague who was himself then shot dead
He was later found to have shown an interest in radical Islam
These attacks came after the massacres carried out by Islamist extremists from 2015 that began with the massacre of staff in the offices of Charlie Hebdo in January that year
130 people were killed and 350 were wounded when Islamist suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Stade de France stadium
bars and restaurants in central Paris and the Bataclan concert hall in November 2015
And in 2016 a man rammed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice
two police officers were stabbed to death at their home outside Paris by a man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group
A suspect in a knife attack in France died from injuries sustained in a shootout with police on Friday
hours after he badly wounded a female officer in the latest violence directed at police over recent months
Two French gendarmes were wounded during the exchange of fire that resulted in the arrest of the suspect
An AFP photo reporter at the scene said he heard around a dozen rounds discharged in two rapid bursts during the standoff that took place in a residential area
Special police forces carrying shields and wearing helmets used rubbish bins and bushes for cover as they opened fire
One witness told AFP he saw a civilian on the ground surrounded by police after the shootout
"The gendarmes have neutralised the individual suspected of the knife attack against the municipal police officer," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted
Pupils in the area's primary and middle schools were kept indoors while police tracked the suspect
"We drew the curtains and told the children to lie on the ground
They've been there for two hours," one local teacher told AFP by text message during the manhunt
La Chapelle-sur-Erdre is a town of 20,000 inhabitants just north of Nantes near the  Atlantic coast. 
French police officers have demanded better protection and harsher punishment for attacks against them after a spate of assaults in the last months which shocked the country
a police employee who was stabbed in the town of Rambouillet outside Paris
Nantes prosecutors said they could not immediately comment
Several attacks over the last year have reignited concerns about the spread of radical Islam inside France and immigration
He was later found to have shown an interest in radical Islam. 
These attacks came after the massacres carried out by Islamist extremists from 2015 that began with the murder of staff in the offices of Charlie Hebdo in January that year
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In Nantes and along the Erdre and the Canal
a dozen of towns host concerts and yacht parades
the heart of the festival is located on the quays of the Erdre with a gathering of heritage boats in the Bassin Ceineray
and 6 stages presenting the full diversity of today’s jazz
Jazz will be present in all its forms: contemporary jazz
electro… and carried by the greatest artists of the French and European scene
Crews of heritage boats get together to share their common passion and travel the 28 km of the navigable Erdre
Nantes • Nort-sur-Erdre • La Chapelle-sur-Erdre • Petit-Mars • Sucé-sur-Erdre • Carquefou Guenrouët • Blain • Le Gâvre • La Chevallerais • Saffré • Séverac • Les Touches • Saint-Mars-du-Désert