Suspected terror attack on France's Reunion

A suspected radical Islamist shot and wounded two police officers on the French island of Reunion on Thursday. Authorities said they are investigating the incident as a possible terror attack.

The two officers were shot while trying to arrest the man, who was later subdued and taken into custody. Neither of the officers suffered life-threatening injuries.

A search of the man's apartment yielded several weapons and supplies to make Molotov cocktails, French Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said in a statement.

The suspect's mother was also detained as part of the investigation.

The shooting on the Indian Ocean island comes a week after a police officer was killed and two others wounded on Paris' Champs Elysees. The so-called "Islamic State" claimed credit for that attack, in which the gunman was killed by police.

The attack terrified the French capital just days before Sunday's first-round of the country's presidential election in which security and Islamist extremism were major themes.

France has been under a state of emergency since 2015 after a spate of militant Islamist attacks that have killed more than 230 people in the country in the past two years. Extremists have targeted security forces, which have been deployed in greater numbers during the state of emergency. 

The attack on the Champs-Elysees resembled two other recent attacks on soldiers providing security at high profile locations in Paris: one at the Louvre museum in February and another at Orly airport last month. 

Nearly 10,000 police on Wednesday demonstrated on the Champs Elysee to highlight their security and overwork.

cw/sms (AFP, AP)