Panic in Paris station as man arrested with knife

Incident comes on eve of French elections and days after the jihadist killing of a policeman on the Champs-Elysees

French policemen stand in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris on April 22, 2017. (AFP/Geoffroy van der Hasselt)

PARIS — A man carrying a knife was arrested on Saturday at Paris’s Gare du Nord station, causing brief panic days after the jihadist killing of a policeman, police sources said amid pre-election jitters.

“An individual carrying a knife came into the station, was pointed out to a police patrol which immediately arrested him,” one of the sources said.

No-one was injured in the incident.

Another police source added that the arrest caused a “panic movement” with a number of travelers abandoning their luggage in the middle of the station.

The incident came two days after the Champs-Elysees killing of a policeman and one day before France goes to the polls in the first round of close-run presidential elections.

France remains under a state of emergency following a string of attacks that have claimed 239 lives since 2015.

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