>> and shyra will take us the the's of last annoy's terrorist attack in the middle of paris. >> gunshot rang out on the champs-élysées shortly before 9:00 on thursday night. a man armed with an automatic weapon deliberately targeted police. one officer was killed and two were seriously injured. >> he came out with a kalashnikov. he started firing. he would have targeted us on the pavement and killed more people but he targeted the policeman and the policeman shot him down. >> the gunman was killed by security forces as he fled the

scene. the champs-élysées avenue was evacuated and a counter-terrorism investigation launched. the attacker was known to police a as a terrorist effect. >> the identity of the attacker was known to us. it has been verified. i cannot give that identity to you because the investigations are underway including raids to further our investigation. and especially to see if the assailant benefited from the help of accomplices. >> officers later recovered the car, guns and explosives during the search of the man's home in the east of paris. the so-called islamic state militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. >> and let's go to james who is at the champs-élysées. james, you're there on the scene where it all happened last night. and from what we have saw earlier in the day, it does appear that everything's back to

normal. >> shops are open, tourists are here as well as passersby. things do appear perfectly normal. and it is a very nice day. the sun is shining. the only things that let you know that there was a terrorist attack here last night are there are some flowers that have been laid close to a tree here on the exact spot where this policeman was shot. one of the members of the police was here laying one of these flowers. he was telling us it is very difficult to watch every single terrorist suspect of course, to him, it does feel very difficult to consider that this man was indeed, condemned to 15 years in prison back in 2005. but he was recently heard in a police station close to paris where he did make threats to police. but still, he says well, security is maximum, of course. and he was there to pay tribute

to his colleagues who had fallen yesterday. but about from that end, and some bullet holes in this hallway right behind me in a glass door. you can actually see the bullet holes where these bullets went into this entrance to a building . well, those are the last marks you can see. things are completely normal otherwise. >> we were talking earlier and you were telling me how you actually interviewed one of the witnesses to last night's attack. hat did he tell you? >> he was simply walking along the champs-élysées where i'm standing at the moment are the attack took place. he saw the policemen. he saw the man jump out of his car, shoot towards the police. eventually he saw one of the policemen falling to the ground. and he decided to hide in this hallway which is right behind me. he laid on the ground and

indeed, he said that the police had respond very well. one of the policeman actually put himself between the awe saint and three or our people who are inside the entrance to this building in order to protect them. and then he said that he was let into the building set on the first floor. he said he was kept informed by police about what was going on outside while he was indeed waiting to be able to leave the building. he also told us that he had been heard by the police for about three hours after the attack. he felt quite confident that the french police were doing everything required to secure the champs-élysées and the country. he felt completely at ease walking along this avenue today. but, of course, he said that ife had to go on despite the terrorist attack. >> thank you, james. now here in the studio with me

is a man who has been following the investigation. we tend to forget the political campaigning that there is indeed a police investigation underway. at this point, what do we know from them? >> we've heard several times and according to sources of the attack that this 39-year-old man was known to police. he had been convicted of several counts of attempted suicide and arrested again in february this year. as far as that we know at this stage, he was not known for any former rad salization with the exception of several death service which he made security forces. for that, he was also known to the country's anti-terrorist police but he was released due to lack of evidence. so the police that he attacked on the champs-élysées, they were definite targets of his. he was under probation since his release from prison back in 2015, which he reportedly did not respect. so we have a man here who --

>> clearly troubled. >> absolutely troubled. pushes the boundaries, fearless. in fact, friends of the family have described him as an unusual character, someone from mars, even. of course his home, a suburb to the east of paris is currently being searched. it's a quiet middle class neighborhood. we don't know what have been found in the house. lastly, three of the attackers' family members are being questioned. this is all reaching. some in media outlines are saying what his name is. we won't mention until the prosecution comes and identifies him. >> the other thing that's been taught a lot is the cycle belgium connection. >> a suspect was sought in the awake of the attack last night. there are questions as to how the attacker got hold of the weapons, whether there were

accomplices. and so the man, one man who the finger was being pointed at turned himself to bill general -- belgian authorities. but belgian authorities say there is no link here. the country's justice minister said at this point there is no intelligence regarding to the link of the country. but one belgian connection that has been spotted by various media outlets is the islamic state group used for the attacker when they claimed responsibility last night. hey refer to the attacker as that potentially suggests he could be from belgian. number of this has been confirmed for any officials whether from france or belgian. as far as we know, the official link from officials is that there is no connection to belgium at this point in time.

>> and we have heard from belgian authorities saying that this man was a french national. so, however, it's one of those stories which is still developing and inevitably, there's a lot of speculation. thank you so much for that. now in the meantime, u.s. president donald trump and the british prime minister theresa may were among the many leaders who condemned the attacks in paris. >> french authorities have long feared a major tourist site might be targeted. the u.s. president has been among the world's leaders to pay his condolences to the victims and the french people. president trump: first of all, our condolences from our country to the people of france. again, it's happening. i just saw it as i was walking in. it's a terrible thing. it's a very, very terrible thing that's going on in the world

today. but it looks like another terrorist attack. >> a spokesperson for angle merkel tweeted that the chancellor expressed her condolences after the attack and that her sympathy went out to the victims and their families. also on twitter, the british prime minister's office says the u.k. strongly condemned the appalling terrorist attack in paris. this latest incident on french soil comes just days before voters go to the polls for the first time of presidential elections on sunday. >> and the french prime minister has vowed to do everything in his power to make sure polling places are safe and secure on sunday. as france heads of the voting booth. >> heightened security for a very important day. following the fatal attack on police officers on the champs-élysées, they met with

ministers friday morning to fine tune election day security measures. the prime minister said citizens should not succumb to fear. >> in the coming days, me than 50,000 police officers will be in place to ensure that the election to seek calmly and safely. this is so fundamental for our country. >> in addition to the 50,000 police officers, 7,000 soldiers will also be on patrol sunday. hey're part of the launch in trivia after the supermarket attacks. the special unit provides anti-terrorism surveillance. the mayors of paris and smaller cities have also hired private security guards to be stationed outside some polling places. in nice, the conservative mayor plans to place a security guard outside of all 252 voting stations. a move that will cost the city

nearly $100,000 euros and one that was made after french police filed a plan on tuesday. officers arrested two individuals who were planning a violent attack and to disrupt the election. france continues to be under a state of emergency. the latest events on the champs-élysées have with just three days to go until polls open, brought national security and terrorism risks to the orefront of voters' minds. >> reporters have been follow the case after traversing the country. they've now returned to the home base. chris moore have been following the far left candidate jean-marie le pen. let's start off with the terror attack. he have say? >> he is not somebody that puts security at the center of his cane but at the same time, he's ot scared to talk tough on

terrorism. we were watching his meeting and speaking live. and offering what he describes is solidarity for those who may or may not have been threaten birthday by that alleged planned attack and saying in the wake is yes, he does believe security forces need to be given rain showers but also the way to deal with this is to carry on with their normal lives. as far as we know, he's one of the few candidates to have kept up the events that he was planning for this evening. -- there is a re-dinner with the leader here in paris. as far as we know, that's not been canceled yet. >> now he's certainly had some bouts in the course of the last

few weeks, hasn't he, in terms of the polls. how do you explain that? >> things are always going to be tight on the left. you've got emmanuel macron who has put himself on the center left and right and there are some talks with the other two for some kind of alliance. that didn't happen. it could have gone either way in terms of where votes went. that's kind of where it tends to stay. there's a lot of hardcore fans. he has his hardcore fans like every candidate by his message on the environment and his anti-capitalist message and the railing against globalization and etc. a lot of the domestic policies are not that different than what we've seen in a lot of rallies amongst the crowds attending. many of them now thinking that perhaps it might be time to

move. there's one guy who we met down in a loose over the weekend. he would have love to vote for hammond but in the end, perhaps it would be a wasted vote. but at the same time, as he told us, he wanted to come to find how scared he was by jean luc. >> who is voting for him and why? >> the hardcore supporters, the people attracted by the message i was just talking about. he is built up this real balance among young voters for a long time. we saw marine le pen had the most dedicated youth following but jean-luc had an anti-establishment to bring in a bit of the same audience being campaigning aggressively in peer parts of france. where that translates itself into something big for him on sunday remains to be seen. young people, perhaps one of the

least reliable parts of the electorate. but they are optimistic. there's this big momentum with him. he's done before back in 2012. he was polling high on the eve of election day. in the end, he ended up losing badly to his opponents. but this time around, you've got macron in the center. macron is too far left for a lot of left wing voters. and alen is in the left wing platform. there's the optimistic things and what happens to benoit's 7% or 8%. >> talking about the man who is indeed the hologram candidate. that's chris moore. we're going to continue talking about the french campaign. t is time for campaign beat.

>> welcome to campaign beat. we're obviously counting now the hours down to sunday. but thursday's terrorist attack very much dominating the last two days of the campaign. with me to discuss this is our international affairs editor and frequent guest here on "france 24," jim shields. doug, let me start with you. a lot of candidates have been making statements in the wake of this attack. what have they been saying? >> they've been saying sometimes very opposite things. but let's start on the hard right and the right of the spectrum. you've had marine le pen perhaps come out with some of the most scathing, the hardest line comments in the wake of this attack essentially some people spreading fear in saying that there are going to be more of these attacks. raising the fears that there could still be someone out there on the rub, trying to drive home the point. the chief started in the aftermath of the attack taking

to social media and to twitter, pointing fingers blaming the lacksism and the naivete of the government, the powers that be that bring about these types of circumstances. so really trying to create the impression that those who say they are trying to protect the french have to have done anything but and they allowed these types of attacks to occur. and you have "france 24" -- francois fillon striking a trump-like tone talking about how it's a battle for france's freedom and security using the term us versus them, them being the radical islamist, the jihaddist waging battle against france. talking about as well, totalitarianism, islamic totalism. i said trump like and that's not my opinion. donald trump used that exact same term, radical islam and he

had blamed barack obama for shying away from saying it like it is. and this is sort of the message that the right of the spectrum is trying to sort of portray right now, that tellez too much political correctness. i'll just mention that macron has sort of had a much more centrist message as you might expect but he's trying to put the emphasis on not spreading panic. he says this is just what the so-called terrorists want. they want to destabilize france. they want to throw the country off balance on the eve of what's been a very uncertain election. what he's saying is at the end of the day, you have to look to the root causes. you need better intelligence. that is the way to address this problem. >> jim, could this really affect the outcome or are we making far too much of this? >> i think it's impossible to see at this point what the impact may be. the presidential election of 2012 and both the departmentle

and regional elections of 2015 were preceded by major terrorist attacks and in none of those cases was it obvious that it had any effect on the vote. the difference is that those played some weeks out from the vote. and last night's attack is the first time we've seen the intrusion of terrorism this lose to polling. until now, they still haven't decided on their candidate, you have to expect that this attack could have some influence. and could tip the balance for a particular candidate or candidates prioritizing strong security and security related measures in their programs, clearly le pen and fillon as doug was saying, especially

since the anti-terrorist police on the champs-élysées is the final image of this campaign that voters will take into the polling booths. >> doug, you've got something to say >> i was just going to add that in the sense that we know that marine le pen in this homestretch of this very uncertain campaign has been coming back to the so-called red meat issue, coming back to the core platform and that's been issues around security, terror and immigration. so an attack like this while it's right to say it is impossible to plug it into some mathematical equation and say this is how it is going to impact the dynamic of the election going ahead what, you can say is it does tend to play into the hands of any candidate, i.e., in this case, marine le pen who has tend to very much play on those issues, issues which resonate with her base, and a base which as we have been saying every step of the way, tends to be extremely not just

die-hard in their support for her but they are mobilized. they turn out to the voting booths on voting day. so it is all a perfect storm of issues coming together for a candidate such as marine le pen, francois fillon, to a certain extent, also trying to tap into that sense of perhaps fear, high anxiety on the eve of this election, hoping that it is going to resonate with the base, trying to not to let marine le pen really dominant the security/imgraduation/terror agenda. marine le pen has it rated her platform that europe's border is partially open should be firmly closed. >> jim, i think beyond all this is the undecided, ironically, going to end up deciding the outcome of this election. >> absolutely. they may be joined by another group that could be one of the biggest constituencys and that is the an sensationists. if you factor in the fact of on

xtension -- abstention, they will determine the outcome. there is nothing new about that. it's just that the numbers this late in the game are larger than where you are used to. and the choice that is facing late deciders is more complex than they are used to. >> doug, i mean, you know, we've just referred to the abstention rate and those who have yet to make up their minds. this has been an extraordinary campaign. it's been unprecedented. as we stand here almost two days to the end of this, and you know, we'll see obviously who is going to be the two leading candidates after sunday night what, are we going to take away from this campaign? how has it changed in the political landscape? >> a lot of the french have lost

all of their reference points in a campaign. we have 11 candidates out there and sure, you know, the french divide them into the front-runners group, big candidates and the small candidates, the little fry. but the fact of the matter is they're across the entire political spectrum from far, far left. you have two trot and is running to the far right which we were just talking about and it is thrown a lot of the french off balance the irony is two days before the election, you have four, possibly five candidates where it's up for grabs. you ask political experts, pundits, people who follow politics, no one's really willing to get all the fence here and say ok, this is what's going to happen. you've had papers in recent days here actually trying to give all of the possibly scenarios for the -- possible of the second round. usually, you have a pretty good idea who is going to be the second round scenarios. they've had six possible

possibilitys and any one of them seem plausible. that's what i take away. the fact that the traditional mainstream party, the conservatives and the socialists are no longer is seen that's shoo-in contenders. you have the fringe parties and the insurgent parties nipping at their heels. >> doug herbert, i'm going to have to leave it there. and i want to thank jim shieldses a frequent guest here on "france 24." thanks to both of you and that's it for the campaign beat. >> time now for business and joining me in the studio is anca. what have you got on your list today? what is the main story? >> the main story for doug as is for yous the french elections. so it seems hike the whole world has been talking about these elections before the campaign even begin and there's a lot of nerves from traders. we're two days away from the first round of voting and the

fore runners are neck and neck. the european union may hang on the outcome. for more, we cross over to london to speak to an economy with u.b.s. wealth management. thank you for joining us, dean. >> thank you. >> today brought some good news for the eurozone. its economy hit a six-year high in april with france lead the growth. what effects could that have on markets ahead of this first round? >> markets still trading cautiously ahead of sunday's elections. i mean, clearly, given the uncertainty that sunday night could bring, i think traders are reluctant to take big positions right now. >> ok. and then we're also thinking relatively stable euro and the french bond yield that hit a three-month low. could this be the calm before the storm, do you think? >> i don't know about the calm before the storm. but markets are probably assessing the most likely

outcome from sunday's election. and notwithstanding the fact what the opinion polls are extremely close and we all acknowledge that they're within margins of error. it is more than likely that we do see one of the mainstream candidates go through. and in fact, if that proves to be the case, then that should give markets some cause for relief. and it's unlikely yet that we're facing this scenario where get the two anti-establishment candidate which is would probably be a thing that unsettles markets the most. >> just following up on what you've said. we've seen a lot of doom and gloom following this election. what is the most favorable outcomes on sunday as far as the markets are concerned? >> a favorable outcome will be an outcome that where we see one of the establishment candidates either mr. macron or mr. fillon against one of the other candidates or alternatively is the head of who is against those

two candidates themselves. i mean certainly given the economic backdrop as you referred to earlier that's been confirmed by this morning's numbers, if we were to see that election risk >> in ththis episode, mexicali

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