Man shot by police in Paris was wearing a fake explosive belt

A man on Thursday morning was shot dead outside a police station in northern Paris after he was wielding a gun and also wearing a suicide vest.

Six bullet casings were found at the scene, the source added.

The incident took place exactly one year after deadly Islamist militant attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in the French capital and also just minutes after President Francois Hollande had given a speech in an another part of Paris to mark the anniversary.

Pictures posted on social media showed a man in jeans and a grey jacket lying with his arms out at his sides on the pavement, yards from the entrance to the police station.

The man had a pouch attached to his coat that was showing wires.

His body is being checked by a police robot used for bomb disposal.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised the “remarkable work” of the security forces in the incident. “Terrorism has not stopped posing a threat to our country”, said Hollande.

He also urged police and other security forces to co-ordinate their work and share intelligence. The attacker was shot as he tried to enter the station, officials said.

The Paris attacks a year ago saw 17 people killed over three days from January 7-9.

On Thursday, Paris was commemorating the year’s second-bloodiest terrorist attack in France: the January 7 killing of 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, which was followed shortly by a hostage-taking at a Kosher supermarket.

The weekly had been in the jihadists’ sights since it first published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2006. It noted the controversy sparked by the cover of Charlie Hebdo’s Wednesday edition, which depicts a gun-toting God fi gure on the run.