A knifeman shot by police after stabbing a female officer has died.
The assailant - named by Le Figaro as Ndiaga Dieye, 40 - attacked the woman in the town of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre on Friday.
He fled the scene before being found by police and gunned down, according to reports.
More than 200 officers - some heavily armed - were scrambled to the scene to deal with the incident.
The attacker was taken into custody initially but died shortly afterwards, source say.
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Two officers suffered reportedly injuries to the arm and hand in the shoot-out.
The stabbing victim - who was reportedly "slashed" - remains in a critical condition in hospital but it likely to survive, it is said.
A motive is yet to be discovered, although reports merged after the incident that the suspect had been radicalised in prison.
A police probe has been opened, with France's anti-terrorism prosecutor monitoring the situation.
A source told the Reuters news agency the man had been released in March following a conviction for violence.
He carried out the attack on Friday at around 10am before stealing his victim's weapon fleeing in a car.
But crash forced him to continue on foot, police said, and was tracked down to a forest near the 20,000-strong town.
He then opened fire on officers at around 1pm, a police source said.
"He was brandishing the pistol taken from the police officer he stabbed," said a local official.
The incident comes just a month after a female police administrative worker was stabbed to death near Paris by a Tunisian national.
That attacker had watched Islamic religious videos glorifying acts of jihad just before launching his attack.
It followed six years of attacks in France, including the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty by a terrorist in October last year.
The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in Paris.
Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue.
Tackling domestic security is likely to be at the centre of the campaign ahead of next year's presidential election.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right and the strongest challenger to Emmanuel Macron's expected re-election bid, paints the president as weak on security and says the police need more protection.
