A French soldier on Friday (February 3) shot and wounded a man armed with a knife after he tried to enter the Louvre museum in central Paris carrying a suitcase, police said.
The man cried out "Allahu Akbar" and police believe he wanted to carry out a terrorist attack, Michel Cadot, the head of the French capital's police force, said on Friday.
Cadot added that a second individual had been detained and said no explosives had been found in the bag.
Video uploaded to Twitter shortly after the incident took place showed people still waiting in line outside the entrance to the museum. Some people are also seen strolling in the square nearby.
Louvre officials said the museum was closed and that visitors already inside when the attack took place were being kept there.
France has been hit by a series of militant Islamist attacks over the past two years that have killed more than 230 people and which have been claimed by the militant Islamist group Islamic State.
The most recent deadly attack took place in the southern city of Nice when a man drove a truck into a crowd on the seafront killing 86.
Two potential attacks were thwarted in September including one by a group of women who parked a car containing gas canisters near Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral.
The country is less than three months away from a presidential election in which security and fears of terrorism are among the key issues.
