welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: a gun attack on the champs—elysees in central paris leaves one policeman dead, two more seriously wounded. officials say the gunman, who was shot dead by police, was known to security services. mesdames et messieurs, you have to stay back, please. the area is dangerous because of shotguns. please stay back. a massive security operation gathers pace. the so—called islamic state group claims it was behind the attack. president hollande says all signs do point to terrorism. translation: we are convinced that the investigations will show that this attack was terrorist in nature. the anti—terror group has been deployed, and it will lead the inquiry. hello.

a major security operation is underway in paris, where a gunman opened fire on a police bus in the heart of the french capital, killing one officer, wounding two others and a passer—by. the gunman drove up to the bus, got out and began firing an automatic weapon, thought to be an assault rifle. officers then shot him dead. it happened on one of the city's best—known streets, the avenue des champs—elysees, which runs between the place charles de gaulle and the place de la concorde. towards the western end, it is thought, about 300 metres, barely 1,000 feet, from the arc de triomphe itself. reports suggest the gunman was known to the intelligence services, and police have been searching his home in the eastern suburbs of paris. the extremist group the so—called islamic state is saying it was behind the shooting, and has named the attacker as a belgian, abu yousif. it is just days before the french vote in the first round of the presidential election. francois hollande, the current president, said he is convinced the attack is related to terrorism.

james reynolds reports from paris. in the minutes after the attack, the police in paris took every movement as a threat. at this stage, officers didn't know if any other gunmen might still be at large. the shooting happened right in the centre of the city, as parisians and tourists were heading out to dinner. the champs—elysees was already full of police officers, guarding againstan attack on civilians. but it seems that this shooting targeted officers themselves. translation: we are convinced that the track the investigation is on will reveal that the event is of a terrorist nature. late into the night here, the police are still stopping people from approaching the scene

of the attack, just a block or so away, on the champs—elysees. and everyone around here wants to know exact and what happened. the police want to make sure that all nearby streets are safe. officers kept their handguns drawn. they searched everyone coming out of a nearby building. i was shocked when i came out of the subway. police in riot gear approached me and just put me to the side. i told them my hotel's just right behind you, and they would not allow me to go. the country will now investigate the shooting, and make sure that its plans for sunday's presidential election are in place. james reynolds, bbc news, paris. in a brief statement, the paris prosecutor francois molins said the gunman had been identified. translation: the identity of the attacker is known, and it has been verified. i won't reveal it, as investigations and searches are already taking place to determine whether or not he had any accomplices. walid haddad was in a cafe

facing the george v hotel, just off the champs—elysees, when the shooting started. i was sitting at a cafe in the — let's say 400 metres from where everything happened, in front of the famous george v hotel, in the george v avenue. i was inside, i was indoors. i heard very strong noises and at the beginning i think it was high construction noises, things like that. but i left the cafe three minutes later in order to head to the champs—elysee, and i started to see many people running very frightened, running in the

opposite way of mine. lots of frightened people told me there was shooting everywhere, and you definitely have to get out of here. so i started to run on the opposite side. let's say a minute later i could see a helicopter over paris, we could see very quickly plenty of police cars, even helicopters, one or two helicopters over the sector with some cameras on the helicopters, so i guess they were still tracking. we can still hear some sirens, not very farfrom our we can still hear some sirens, not very far from our place we can still hear some sirens, not very farfrom our place it we can still hear some sirens, not very far from our place it is still forbidden to all traffic. the moments after the shooting were chaotic, with reports of more gunfire being heard.

those reports turned out to be false, but this clip from our europe editor katya adler shows just how unnerving a situation like this is. banging. shots are being fired. is it gunshots? no, no, no. it's not gunshots. entrez, entrez! everybody in, everybody in! keep the door open. as you heard, it turned out that those noises were not gunshots, but it shows how difficult situations like this are for security services. thomas fessy reports now on the security situation in france, just days before the election. well, there is no doubt that this latest attack is putting security issues right back at the centre

of the presidential campaign, just in the final hours of the campaign. interestingly enough, security issues and terrorism have not been the focus of this campaign so far. it's been a lot more talked about economic issues, unemployment, but also a distrust of the political classes, and job losses. and you have hardline candidates, like marine le pen, of the national front, obviously, who are quite — who are talking about these security issues, and radical islam and migration and terrorism, quite often. but it has not been very much the centre of this campaign. and now, with this latest attack, it will be on everybody‘s minds before the vote on sunday. now, security had already been increased around all the candidates in the last few days,

because an attack — a plan for an attack had been foiled in the southern city of marseilles, where two people have been arrested. they were apparently planning an attack either on presidential candidates, or a rally. we don't know exactly, but an explosive has been found at their apartment. the security forces were able to search their home in the framework of the state of emergency that has been in place for the past two years in france. and, obviously, that shows that the security services are very much on alert on that kind of threat. today, that latest attack shows that the threat is very much there, and that it may have an impact on the turnout of the vote

on sunday, whether people will be fearing to go out and vote, or whether they will feel that it is safer to stay home, we'll have yet to see. david gartenstein— ross, a counter—terrorism analyst and senior fellow at the foundation for defence of democracies, gave me his take on the attack. isis has claimed credit for it. obviously we don't know if the claim for credit is credible, yet, but it has the hallmarks of a terrorist attack. and isis have provided enough early information that we should be up to have a good sense as to whether they knew ahead of time. i suspect that if they did, it is likely that they have a statement from the attacker himself that they will be off

to push out to other media in the next few days. it is bad enough, of course, that anybody died, but there were of course thousands of people in the champs—elysees, as usual. it is pretty clear that this was a deliberate targeting of people in uniform, as at orly airport, with the attack on the soldier. yeah, that's correct. and, you know, if the attack had gone on for longer, who knows what would have happened? they could have been a transition to more targeting of tourists or the like. and he obviously went for the security services from the outset. a number of attacks that have been linked back to isis have targeted police services. we have the charlie hebdo attack, and others. the security services have been in a special target for a variety of reasons. and sadly, today was no exception.

only one attacker at the scene, david. police say they are checking for accomplices. they say that an arrest warrant had been issued for a a possible accomplice. this phrase lone—wolf, there is not really much of a thing like that, is there? there are, but it is rare. people throw that term around a lot. when an individual is in contact with an organisation, it is a good sign is not a lone—wolf attacker. with the boom in social media and the boom in encrypt communications, particularly end to end encryption, isis has taken advantage of this and is in touch with more terrorists than ever before.

we will have more on the paris attack in a moment, and don't forget, there is plenty of background and analysis on our website. plus the latest developments and pictures and video from the scene. the stars and stripes at half—mast outside columbine high. the school sealed off, the bodies of the dead still inside. i never thought they would actually go through with it. some places have already had nearly as much rain as they would normally expect in an entire year. for millions of americans, the death of richard nixon in a new york hospital has meant conflicting emotions. a national day of mourning next wednesday sitting somehow uneasily with the abiding memories of the shame of watergate. and lift—off of the space shuttle discovery with the hubble space

telescope, our window on the universe. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: a gun attack on the champs—elysees, in central paris, has left one policeman dead and two more seriously wounded. officials say the lone gunman, who has been killed, was known to security services. a police search is under way at his home near the capital. france has endured a series of attacks in the past three years. the timing of this one is surely significant just days before the first round of voting in the presidential election. sarah corker has been looking at political reaction to the attack. as news broke of another terror

attack in france, all 11 candidates standing in sunday's presidential election were making their final tv appearances. as a mark of respect to several candidates have ended their campaigns early. the centre—right francois fillon paid tribute to the security forces. translation: concerning what happened tonight i wa nt to concerning what happened tonight i want to first and foremost say that the nation stands with the police. we are faced with an act that we can't yet totally makes sense but sadly it seems to resemble an act of terror. on the world-famous boulevard a car pulled up alongside a police bus, a man got out and opened fire with an automatic weapon on police officers. marine le pen of the far right national front tweeted: john luke kneller standing for the

far left wrote: —— melechon. sentiments echoed by other candidates. translation: tonight while we have been talking, we know that at least one police officer has been killed. this threat is incalculable and is going to be a pa rt incalculable and is going to be a part of our daily lives for years to come. france has been in a state of emergency since come. france has been in a state of emergency since a come. france has been in a state of emergency since a string ofjihadist terror attacks that began in 2015 and have killed over 230 people. in january 2015 gunmen in paris attacked the officers of the charlie hebdo magazine and a supermarket. in the same year in november the bata cla n the same year in november the bataclan concert hall and a major stadium were attacked, leaving at least 130 people dead. injuly 2016

a lorry drove through a crowd celebrating bastille day in nice, killing at least 84 people. and this year and killing at least 84 people. and this yearand man armed killing at least 84 people. and this year and man armed with machetes attacked soldiers at paris's louvre museum. and just last month a man was killed at paris's airport after attacking a soldier. the nation is once again on high alert. it is now is on members of the security forces have been deployed for sunday's valet. —— ballo. earlier, terrorism expert professor max abrahms gave us his thoughts on the paris attack. france clearly doesn't have the terrorism problem under wraps. since charlie hebdo there have been numerous attacks killing over 200 people in france. and i think that it's interesting because on the one hand we are making a lot of progress against islamic state as an organisation, in iraq and in syria we're really trimming this group down. and yet the more international

attacks, the small cells, the islamic state inspired and islam stay to directed attacks, whatever you want to call them, the spreading of this around the world and in europe, this is clearly a problem not under control clearly and it could be getting worse as the caliphate gets broken up and fighters are encouraged to go home, stay home and commit local attacks. so we may see a paradox where we see a spike in these kind of attacks as the group increasingly is getting defeated in its stronghold. and yet in this case you would have to acknowledge they acted pretty fast. they were targeted because they were there protecting people, there were thousands of people on the champs—elysee, none of them were hurt.

and only a couple of days ago the intelligence services under uncovered a plan for an attack in marseille, explosives and weapons seized there? yeah, that's right, that looked like an imminent lethal attack, bomb—making capabilities were discovered as well as an islamic state flag. there's a french election coming up on sunday, and a lot of people think islamic state is particularly mobilised now to strike to somehow adversely affect democracy. so it certainly seems like islamic state tentacles in the french belgian area are electrified right now. nothing confirmed yet but there are suggestions of links to brussels? that's right. the french authorities mention that and then islamic state itself mentioned that in its credit claim on one of its media networks. it referred to this guy as a belgian fighter, using some sort of non—daguerre locating him from belgium. there's a better relationship between belgium and france.

the france attackers hid out in belgium. we know previously networks have spanned belgium and france. in a way we are seeing more of the same. many people have criticised this phrase, it comes up in the media, i feel we have used it sometimes, lone wolf, lone attacker, yet there always seems to be a trail online, a process of radicalisation, in this case the attacker posted his intention to attack police officers on the messaging service telegram. does that suggest more needs to be done online to nip this in the bud? i think we need to do everything. mainly we need battlefield success. we need to keep hammering this group in its stronghold and that will also interfere with its online game, by convincing people, muslims around the world, the idea of the caliphate is not going to happen. i'm not a big proponent of trying

to fight them online because they are good online. that's a logical fallacy. we need to stick to what we are good at, which is using our military and continuing to win. in terms of whether it is a lone wolf, that is an under specified term. in a way there are no pure lone wolves, because everyone who commits an attack is radicalised by something. usually they went online and often times they have contacts with other radicals, and in this case i wouldn't be surprised if we find out there is an unusually tight connection between the organisation and the attacker, and that's because the organisation so quickly claimed responsibility for the attack. this was an unusually quick credit claim, which suggests to me maybe the leadership knew about it before it happened. professor max abrahms there.

earlier my colleague martine croxall spoke to sir peter ricketts who was uk ambassador to france between 2012 and 2016 and began by asking for his reaction to events in paris. well, this does have all the hallmarks of another terrorist attack, doesn't it? it's a deliberate, targeted attack on police on one of the highest profile streets in france, with thousands of tourists and people around, as there would be on any evening. so this clearly was intended to attract the maximum attention at a very sensitive time in france just before the elections. how significant then is the location? well, it's highly symbolic. i mean, you can't think of a more symbolic french target, i suppose, than the champs—elysees. this was calculated to have maximum impact, and it inevitably has done. some of the eyewitnesses we've spoken to have said that they felt that the police were very much the target, here, when there were of course probably many other people out on the street. as far as we're aware,

they're unharmed. so the police being a target another significant factor here? initial reports suggest the vehicle pulled up alongside the police van and opened fire on the policemen thatjust happened to be there. of course, there are a lot of police on the champs—elysees at any time. so yes, there are a lot of enquiries to be done, but it looks like a targeted attack on the police force in france. you were clearly the ambassador in paris during some very tumultuous times. there has really been a state of emergency in place for some time. what more can the french authorities do in terms of providing more security? i don't think there is much more. they were already planning on an extra 50,000 security forces out and about in france for the elections on sunday. so i don't think there's any more in terms of security they can do.

the experience in paris from a year and a half ago, the bataclan attacks, was that people were very determined not to let the terrorists change their way of life or block them off what they were intending to do. so i think the reaction in paris will be one of resilience and determination not to be cowed by this attack. but obviously it will increase anxiety and tension. there was already one plot disrupted in marseille a couple of days ago, so this does show that france is that a very, very high level of threat at the moment. from su'a—filo has according to reuters called for the election campaign to be suspended. how likely is that in the light of what he said, paris and france wanting to show that normal life can carry on —— francois fillon. show that normal life can carry on -- francois fillon. ithink

show that normal life can carry on -- francois fillon. i think he talked about suspending his campaign. i mean, it is now really only one more day of campaigning a nyway only one more day of campaigning anyway in this election campaign, because saturday, the day before the election, is a day when no campaigning is allowed. so, in practice, the campaign for the first round is almost over anyway and i think it is hard to see that they will postpone the actual voting on sunday and i think the logic would beindeed sunday and i think the logic would be indeed that france should carry on and show that they are not going to be frightened away from this hugely important democratic exercise that they are now on the point of conducting. and in terms of the timing of this, i mean, how coincidental that this was the presidential debate taking place this evening? i don't pick we know the answer to that by treaty surely no coincidence that this attack has happened just a couple of days before, you know, the first round of the presidential elections, a major democratic moment in france in a five—year cycle. so it seems to me the timing was deliberate in that

sense. sir peter ricketts there. a reminder of our top story: a french police officer has been killed in paris and two others seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire on a police bus parked on the champs—elysees. the man got out of a car and started firing an automatic weapon, before being shot dead by police. the paris prosecutor said the gunman had been identified. he confirmed that a police search was under way at the suspect‘s home in the eastern suburbs of paris. the french president, francois hollande, promised absolute vigilance in the days ahead and said he would hold a meeting of his security cabinet in the morning. he offered condolences to the families of the victims of the shooting, and reaffirmed his support for the security services. the shooting comes just days before the first round of the presidential election. that's it for now. much more on that and all of the news on the bbc news website. thanks for watching.

hello. if you think we're finished with winter weather, think again. next week it will turn much colderfor a time. frost and even some wintry showers around for some of us. we'll talk about that weather change in a moment. but this is the fairly quiet picture as friday begins. i say fairly quiet because we have got rain affecting parts of scotland with a stronger wind. it'll be a mild start for much of the uk and where we'd like some rain across those parts of england, wales, into the channel islands that have been so very dry, it is looking mainly dry as the day begins. variable cloud, a few bright or sunny breaks. now, from the thickest cloud in wales, more especially north—west england, northern ireland and south—west scotland, a bit damp and drizzly in places, especially coasts and hills. some more persistent rain with the stronger wind across the northern half of scotland. that's cleared away from the northern isles at this stage, so we're left in a colder, showery air mass throughout the day. quite windy, some of those showers might have a wintry flavour. through the day we take outbreaks of rain southwards across scotland,

eventually reaching into parts of northern ireland. we'll keep plenty of cloud, north—west england and wales, into the west midlands, maybe the odd spot of light rain or drizzle. we'll keep some sunny spells, though, east of the pennines, east midlands, east anglia, southern england often cloudy but some bright or sunny spells and some warmth in that sunshine when it makes an appearance. some of us 18 or even 19 celsius. now, on through friday evening, a lot of dry weather to come going into saturday morning. just this zone of thicker cloud, patchy light rain or drizzle edging southwards. to the north of that, colder, colder start to saturday, parts of northern england, especially scotland with a touch of frost. on through the weekend, no a significant change any time soon. that's confined to next week. for the weekend it will be mainly dry. there will be a lot of cloud around at times but some bright or sunny spells. close to this weather front, still a bit of damp and drizzly weather edging its way southwards during saturday. north of that, sunny spells, a few showers running into northern scotland. south of that, we're keeping temperatures up here, so a bit of warmth as the sun makes an appearance. but it will be a cooler feel

across many parts of the uk, and particularly where you've got the breeze. but as ever, if the sun makes an appearance it will feel quite pleasant. similarly so on sunday. a lot of dry weather for england and wales, for northern ireland until late in the day. but parts of scotland, especially the further north you are, turning windier and wetter as the day goes on. looking fairly promising for the london marathon, there will be some warmth as the day goes on but for the start, single figure temperatures, and if it's overcast, that's pretty much ideal i think for the runners. now, going from sunday to monday, particularly by the time we get to tuesday, that weather change i was talking about, colder air pushing south across the uk and a stronger wind and some of those showers will be turning wintry. our main story on bbc news: a major anti—terror operation is underway in paris, after a gunman opened fire on a police bus, killing one officer and seriously wounding two others. the attacker, who targeted the busy champs elysees in the heart of the city, attempted to flee the scene, but was shot dead by police. officials have confirmed he was known to the intelligence

services, and a police search is under way at his home near the capital. the islamic state group says it carried out the shooting, naming the attacker as a belgian, abu yousif. french president francois hollande has held crisis talks with his prime minister and interior minister, and is set to convene his security cabinet on friday morning. the incident comesjust days ahead of the first round of the french presidential election. some of the candidates have suspended their campaigns in light of the attack.