A FRENCH soldier shot and seriously injured a man who launched an attack in a shopping area beneath The Louvre in Paris yesterday.

About 1,000 visitors, including tourists, were held in safe areas inside one of the city’s biggest attractions during the incident.

It took place only hours before leaders of Paris’s bid for the 2024 Olympics unveiled their final candidate files at the Eiffel Tower.

President Francois Hollande told reporters at an EU summit in Malta that there was “no doubt” the attack was of a “terrorist nature”.

Police union official Yves Lefebvre said the man was carrying two backpacks and had two machetes. He reacted when soldiers told him he could not enter with his bags.

Lefebvre said: “That’s when he got the knife out and that’s when he tried to stab the soldier.”

The man was said to have shouted “Allahu akbar”, the Arabic phrase for “God is great”.

Paris police chief Michel Cadot said a soldier opened fire and the man was struck five times, once in the stomach.

The backpacks did not contain any explosives, he added. One of the soldiers was slightly wounded on the scalp.

A spokesman for the military force that patrols key sites in Paris says a four-man patrol tried to fight off the assailant before opening fire.

Spokesman Benoit Brulon says the soldier who was slightly injured by the attacker was not the one who opened fire.

A tweet from France’s interior ministry said: “Grave public security event under way in Paris in the Louvre quarter, priority given to the intervention of security forces and emergency personnel.”

The Rue de Rivoli running alongside the museum was closed to traffic while trains were being pushed through the Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre metro station without stopping.

The interior ministry said anti-terrorism prosecutors were investigating the attack, which happened at 10am yesterday, but that there were no details about the identity of the attacker.

However, he was reported to be an Egyptian national.

Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said that a second person was also arrested but it is unclear whether they were linked to the attack.

Conor Bakhuizen, 18, is in Paris on a school trip. In a Twitter exchange with a news agency, he said he “was in the foyer and was suddenly rushed into another room in the museum”.

Olivier Majewski was leaving his scooter in the parking area beneath the Louvre when he saw about 30 or 40 people running and screaming: “There’s been a terror attack”.

The 53-year-old said he hid for about 15 minutes before making his way upstairs. He said people were clearly scared.

Witnesses who were waiting to leave the Louvre said they heard gunfire and could smell smoke.

Students Mei Xiayou and Ying Zhang said all the visitors were led to a safe area, which was packed with people.

Ying Zhang said: “We were standing in the safety area and after half an hour, we smelled some smoke and then thought ‘maybe this is true, there might be gunshots’.”

US President Donald Trump later claimed that a “new radical Islamic terrorist” was behind the attack.

Trump tweeted early yesterday that the US needs to “get smart” in light of the incident.

He wrote: “A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again.”

French officials have repeatedly dismissed security concerns over the Olympics bid despite a wave of attacks that has left more than 200 people dead in the country over the past two years.

Speaking outside the Louvre, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, said all big cities in the world are under threat. She said that “there is not a single one escaping that menace”.

Paris, which has not hosted the Olympics since 1924, is competing against Budapest and Los Angeles.

After the attack, the French Olympic bid committee reiterated its confidence in the city’s bid, in particular that 95 percent of Paris’s needed infrastructure to host the games was already in place.

All that is left to build is a pool and a new Olympic village in the Seine-Saint-Denis neighbourhood.