French police secure the area after a man was shot at a police station

Officers shot and killed a knife-wielding man wearing a fake explosive vest at a police station in northern Paris on Thursday, French officials said, a year to the day after an attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo launched a bloody year in the French capital.

“The man did have a belt, but it was a fake. The bomb-disposal unit confirmed it was a fake,” a police union source said. French police officials said the man has not yet been identified.

Luc Poignant, a police union official, said the man cried out “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”
The man was wearing what looked like an explosive vest, but it was fake, according to two French police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Just a few minutes earlier, elsewhere in the city, French President Francois Hollande had given a speech to security forces to mark the anniversary of last year’s attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in the French capital.

Hollande said the government was passing new laws and ramping up security, but the threat remained high. He especially called for better surveillance of “radicalized” citizens who have joined Islamic State or other militant groups in Syria and Iraq when they return to France.

Officials said bomb disposal experts were on site. Police were investigating the incident at the Paris police station Thursday as “more likely terrorism” than a standard criminal act. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be publicly named according to police policy. The neighborhood in the Goutte d’Or district of northern Paris was locked down.

France has been on high alert ever since, and was struck again Nov. 13 by extremists in attacks claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 130 people at a concert hall and in bars and restaurants.