French police arrested three people linked to a 36-year-old Tunisian man who stabbed to death a police employee at her workplace southwest of Paris on Friday in a suspected Islamist attack.

The murder at a police station in Rambouillet, a commuter town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Paris, revived the trauma of a spate of deadly attacks last year.

The victim was a 49-year-old woman named as Stephanie, a police administrative assistant and mother-of-two, who was stabbed twice in the throat at the entrance of the station. Her attacker was shot dead.

France has faced a series of attacks blamed on Islamist radicals in recent years that have cost the lives of hundreds of people
France has faced a series of attacks blamed on Islamist radicals in recent years that have cost the lives of hundreds of people AFP / VALERY HACHE

President Emmanuel Macron, who was out of the country on a visit to Chad in northern Africa, tweeted that France would never give in to "Islamist terrorism".

The latest bloodshed and violence targeting police is likely to focus attention further on the danger of Islamic extremism in France and wider concerns about security one year ahead of presidential elections.

France's national anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened a terror investigation, while a source close to the inquiry told AFP the knifeman shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) during the attack.

Map locating Rambouillet near Paris, France
Map locating Rambouillet near Paris, France AFP / Simon MALFATTO

Chief anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, who spoke outside the station along with Prime Minister Jean Castex, confirmed "comments made by the assailant" indicated a terror motive.

France has faced a series of attacks blamed on Islamist radicals in recent years that have cost the lives of hundreds of people
France has faced a series of attacks blamed on Islamist radicals in recent years that have cost the lives of hundreds of people AFP / VALERY HACHE

The attacker, identified only as Jamel G., was fatally wounded when an officer opened fire on him.

He arrived in France illegally in 2009 but had since obtained residency papers, a police source said, adding that he was unknown to security services. He had just moved to Rambouillet.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen immediately questioned why the attacker had been able to settle in the country and she hit back at recent criticism about police brutality in France.

French PM Castex arrives on scene after police officer shot dead near Paris
French PM Castex arrives on scene after police officer shot dead near Paris POOL FRANCE TELEVISIONS

"We need to get back to reason: supporting our police, expelling illegal immigrants and eradicating Islamism," she wrote on Twitter.

Polls currently show her running Macron close in next year's election, though experts warn that surveys conducted so far from voting day and during a pandemic should be interpreted with caution.

About 30 police officers wearing balaclavas raided the suspect's home in Rambouillet on Friday evening as they sought information about his motive and contacts, AFP reporters at the scene said.

At the same time police in the Paris region searched the home of the person who had sheltered Jamel G when he first arrived in France, sources close to the inquiry said.

The attack took place Friday afternoon in a tranquil commuter town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Paris
The attack took place Friday afternoon in a tranquil commuter town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Paris AFP / Philippe DUPEYRAT

Three people were arrested in total, a judicial source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who also visited officers in Rambouillet, said security would be stepped up at stations nationwide.

France has been repeatedly targeted by Islamist attackers since 2015, with a series of incidents in the last year keeping terrorism and security as a leading concern.

Macron's government has introduced legislation to tackle religious extremism in France, which would make it easier for the government to close places of worship and track foreign funding of mosques.

The bill has been condemned by critics who see it as stigmatising Muslims.

Last September, a Pakistani man wounded two people with a meat cleaver outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

On October 16, a young Chechen refugee beheaded teacher Samuel Paty who had showed some of the caricatures to his pupils in a crime that profoundly shocked the country.

And on October 29, three people were killed when a recently-arrived Tunisian went on a stabbing spree in a church in the Mediterranean city of Nice.

In the most serious recent attack against French police, three officers and one police employee in Paris were stabbed to death in October 2019 by an IT specialist colleague who was himself then shot dead.

He was found to have shown an interest in radical Islam.

These attacks came after the massacres carried out by Islamist extremists from 2015 that began with the killing of staff in the offices of Charlie Hebdo in January that year.

In France's deadliest peacetime atrocity, 130 people were killed and 350 were wounded when Islamist suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Stade de France stadium, bars and restaurants in central Paris and the Bataclan concert hall in November 2015.

The following year a man rammed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, killing 86 people.