The attack at the Gare de l'Est station in northern Paris came less than two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in the French capital.

The soldier's life was not in danger, Darmanin said on X, while a police source told AFP that he had suffered a shoulder wound.

The suspect is a 40-year-old Frenchman born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a police source said.

He "said he is Christian and shouted 'God is great' in French" at the moment of the attack, another police source added.

The suspect said he attacked the soldier "because the military kills people in his country", the second source said.

"Thoughts to the soldier injured tonight at the Gare de l'Est," Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X, paying tribute to the French troops protecting citizens.

He said the soldier was part of a special military operation to protect sensitive sites in Paris that was deployed following the 2015 Islamist attacks on the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper.

In February 2017, an Egyptian attacked soldiers with a machete outside the world-renown Louvre museum in central Paris, shouting "Allah akbar" -- which means "God is great" in Arabic.

tll/cal/bc/gv

X