A man armed with a knife has attacked a police station and been killed by an officer in a suburb of Tours, a city in central France.

A statement by the Interior Ministry said the man entered the station in the Joue-les-Tours suburb this afternoon and committed a "brutal aggression" against a police officer, leaving them with unidentified injuries.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised the "sang froid and the professionalism of the officers present," one of whom shot dead the unidentified assailant.

The UMP party said in a statement that judicial authorities and an anti-terrorist unit have been called on to investigate the attack.

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