A French police officer escaped serious injury when he was attacked with a knife in Cannes.
The attacker opened the door of a police car parked in front of a police station and stabbed the officer at the wheel at around 6.20am local time, officials said.
He then tried to attack a second policeman in the vehicle but two others opened fire, seriously wounding the assailant.
The police officer emerged from the attack unscathed, saved from serious injury or worse by his bullet-proof vest, interior minister Gerald Darmanin said.
The attacker suffered life-threatening injuries after he was shot.
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Mr Darmanin tweeted on Monday morning that the attacker has been “neutralised”.
Meanwhile, French media quoted a police source as saying the assailant had said he was acting “in the name of the Prophet”.
Mr Darmanin said the Algerian national held an Italian residency permit, was in France legally and was not on a French watchlist of individuals thought to have Islamist sympathies.
The minister added: “He has been coming to France on a regular basis. This man was working. He’s between 35 and 40 years old and was legally in France.
“As far as I know, he has no criminal record and is unknown to police services and his name did not appear in records for radicalisation.”
Vincent Nicolas, Alliance police union representative, also said in a statement: “At 6:30 am this morning a man showed up at a police car. He came to the door and opened the back door.
“He tried to stab a policeman who was saved by his bullet-proof jacket.
“His three other colleagues came out of the car. The assailant launched himself on a second police officer. He was aimed at and was shot by the two colleagues who injured him on his side and back.”
The attack in Cannes comes as worries over violent crime and terrorism feature among voters’ main concerns in the run-up to the 2022 French presidential election.
In April, an administrative worker was stabbed to death inside a police station in Rambouillet, a town southwest of Paris, prompting a terrorism investigation.
Her attacker was then shot and killed nearby.
The 49-year-old victim worked for the national police service.
Last October, a mob armed with metal bars and fireworks also attacked a police station in the suburbs of Paris.
The group of about 40 tried to storm the police station in Champigny-sur-Marne, about nine miles (15km) southeast of central Paris.
The mob tried, but failed, to force its way into the building in what was the third attack on the station in three years.