French police shoot and wound knifeman in eastern city of Metz

It comes just two days after a man went on a knife rampage in the suburb of Villejuif just outside Paris

French police secure an area in Villejuif near Paris, France, January 3, 2020 after police shot dead a man who tried to stab several people in a public park. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

French police on Sunday shot and wounded a man who had rushed towards a group of policemen with a knife shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) in the eastern city of Metz.

The attack came just two days after a man went on a knife rampage in the suburb of Villejuif just outside Paris, killing one person and wounding two. The Villejuif attacker was subsequently shot dead by police.

The Metz local public prosecutor's office said it was in contact with the French anti-terrorism prosecutor's department over the incident.

French interior minister Christophe Castaner said he was monitoring the situation closely.

"I praise the quick thinking of the @PoliceNat57 (Moselle police force), which intervened to apprehend the individual. A probe is underway to determine the precise motivation and circumstances behind the act," he wrote on Twitter.

The suspect was shot in the thigh after threatening officers when they arrived at the scene, the Metz local prosecutor's office said. The unnamed suspect was then taken away.

The man was on an official list of those monitored for links to militant groups.

France has seen a wave of terrorist attacks in recent years. The worst was in Paris in November 2015, where co-ordinated bombings and shootings at the Bataclan theatre and other sites around the capital killed 130 people - the deadliest attacks in France since World War Two.