The suspect, still armed, had been on the run after the attack in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre near the city of Nantes, western France, and 80 officers were dispatched to pursue him.
After stabbing the officer at a police station, he stole her service weapon.
No motive for the stabbing has emerged so far. The attacker had been released from prison in March and was "radicalised and suffering from a very serious psychiatric illness" reported Le Parisien daily.
L’homme qui a agressé une policière au couteau à La Chapelle-sur-Erdre ce vendredi, souffrait de troubles psychiatriques
— Le Parisien (@le_Parisien) May 28, 2021
Il était sorti de prison en mars dernier. Sa radicalisation avait été décelée en détentionhttps://t.co/WtvGQ5LOpV
Two French gendarmes were wounded during the exchange of fire that resulted in the arrest of the suspect, authorities said, and one was suffering from shock.
The suspect died shortly after.
"The gendarmes have neutralised the individual suspected of the knife attack against the municipal police officer," Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
Pupils in the area's primary and middle schools were kept indoors while police tracked the suspect, a city official told reporters.
La Chapelle-sur-Erdre is a town of 20,000 inhabitants just north of Nantes near the Atlantic coast.
The attack came on the same day that Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti called on French judges to show "firmness" when dealing with people found guilty of attacks on police forces.
Spate of attacks
French police officers have demanded better protection and harsher punishment for attacks against them after several recent assaults.
Earlier this month, officer Eric Masson was shot dead while investigating activity at a known drug-dealing site in the southern city of Avignon.
Masson's death came after the April 23 killing of Stephanie Monferme, a police employee who was stabbed in the town of Rambouillet outside Paris in the latest jihadist attack in France.
In the worst recent attack against French police, three officers and one police employee were stabbed to death in October 2019 by a IT specialist colleague who was himself then shot dead.
He was later found to have shown an interest in radical Islamist ideology.
There was no immediate indication that the French authorities intended to open a terror probe into Friday's attack.
Nantes prosecutors said they could not immediately comment.
(with AFP)
