At least three people are dead and four were wounded after gunshots were fired in a central district of Paris, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Paris police said an incident on the Rue d’Enghien is over as the attacker has been arrested.
“The shooter has been arrested with his weapon. The danger is over,” a police source told AFP.
The office added that a 69-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident.
“His identity is in the process of being checked,” it added. The motive remains unknown.
Mathilde Panot, parliamentary head of the hard-left France Unbowed political party, immediately pointed the finger at the far-right, calling it a “racist attack.”
“The shooting took place at a Kurdish community centre situated in the Rue d’Enghien as well as at a restaurant facing the Kurdish centre and a hairdresser”, said mayor Alexandra Cordebard.
Cordebard added that the attacker was also wounded and is hospitalised.
The suspect behind the shooting had attacked a migrants camp one year ago, according to the French BFM TV.
One witness told French news agency AFP that seven or eight shots had been fired, sowing mayhem in the street.
The shots shortly before midday (11:00 GMT) caused panic in the neighbourhood, a bustling area of shops, restaurants and bars.
“There are three dead, one person in intensive care and two people with serious injuries, and the suspect, who was arrested, has also been injured, notably to the face,” Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told reporters.
A shopkeeper in the area told AFP she had heard seven or eight shots in Rue d’Enghien in the 10th arrondissement, saying: “It was total panic. We locked ourselves inside.”
French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said he would travel to Paris and visit the scene of a “dramatic” shooting.
The Kurdish community centre, called Centre Ahmet Kaya, is used by a charity that works to integrate the Kurdish population in the Paris region. (AlJazeera)