Man shot dead at Paris airport 'after trying to grab a gun'

Emergency vehicles arrive Orly airport following the incident on Saturday morning.Reuters

French soldiers shot a man dead at Orly airport in Paris this morning after he tried to grab a weapon, the interiorministry has confirmed.

Police evacuated both terminals at the airport and all flights have been suspended, with some diverted to Charles de Gaulle airport, reports said.

People traveling have been told to avoid the airport while the security operation was under way. Some passengers whose flights had already landed were being held on board.

No one else was injured in the incident, according to reports.

An interior ministry spokesperson said officers were sweeping the airport to make sure that there were no explosive devices.

'A man took a weapon from a soldier then hid in a shop in the airport before being shot dead by security forces,' the spokesperson said.

The soldier was part of the Sentinel special force installed around France to protect sensitive sites after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks.

The French interior minister, Bruno Le Roux, is due to visit the airport, south of Paris, later.

A witness, Franck Lecam, said: 'We had queued up to check in for the Tel Aviv flight when we heard three or four shots nearby. We are all outside the airport, about 200 metres from the entrance.

'There are policemen, emergency workers and soldiers everywhere in all directions. A security official told us that it happened near gates 37-38 where Turkish Airlines flights were scheduled.'

France remains under a state of emergency in the wake of the attack on the Bataclan music venue in November 2015 in which 90 people were killed by Islamist gunmen, and the Nice truck attack last July that claimed the lives of 84 people and injured hundreds more.

No further details about the man killed at the airport were immediately available.