After Terror Attack, France Looks Toward Weekend Presidential Vote

France began picking itself up Friday after another shooting claimed by the Islamic State terror group, with President François Hollande calling together the government’s security council and his would-be successors in the presidential election campaign, and with contenders treading carefully before voting this weekend.

One of the key questions was if, and how, the attack that killed one police officer and wounded three other people might impact voting intentions. The risk for the main candidates was that misjudging the public mood, making an ill-perceived gesture or comment, could damage their chances. With polling just two days away, and campaigning banned from Friday at midnight, they would have no time to recover before polls open on Sunday. Candidates canceled or rescheduled final campaign events ahead of Sunday’s first-round vote in the two-stage election.

On the iconic avenue in the heart of Paris, municipal workers in white hygiene suits were out before dawn Friday to wash down the sidewalk where the assault took place — a scene now depressingly familiar after multiple attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France in little over two years. Delivery trucks did their early morning rounds; everything would have seemed normal were it not for the row of media trucks parked along the boulevard that is a must-visit for tourists.

President Hollande’s Defense and Security Council meeting was part of government efforts to protect Sunday’s vote, taking place under already heightened security, with more than 50,000 police and soldiers mobilized, and a state of emergency in place since 2015.

The terrorist emerged from a car and used an automatic weapon to shoot at officers outside a Marks & Spencer’s department store at the center of the Champs-Élysées, anti-terrorism prosecutor François Molins said. Police shot and killed the terrorist. One officer was killed and two seriously wounded. A foreign woman tourist also was wounded, Molins said. The Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility just a few hours after the attack came unusually swiftly for the terrorist group, which has been losing territory in Iraq and Syria.

In a statement from its Amaq news agency, the group gave a pseudonym for the terrorist, Abu Yusuf al-Beljiki, indicating he was Belgian or had lived in Belgium. Belgian authorities said they had no information about the suspect.

Investigators searched a home early Friday in an eastern suburb of Paris believedto be  linked to the attack. A police document obtained by The Associated Press identifies the address searched in the town of Chelles as the family home of Karim Cheurfi, a 39-year-old with a criminal record.

Police tape surrounded the quiet, middle-class neighborhood and worried neighbors expressed surprise at the searches. Archive reports by French newspaper Le Parisien say that Cheurfi was convicted of attacking a police officer in 2001.

Authorities are trying to determine whether “one or more people” might have helped the terrorist, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.

The terrorist had been flagged as an extremist, according to two police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

The gunfire sent scores of tourists fleeing into side streets.

“They were running, running,” said 55-year-old Badi Ftaïti, who lives in the area. “Some were crying. There were tens, maybe even hundreds of them.”

The assault recalled two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris: one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.

A French media station hosting an event with the 11 candidates running for president briefly interrupted its broadcast to report the shootings.

Conservative contender François Fillon, who has campaigned against “Islamic totalitarianism,” said on France 2 that he was canceling his planned campaign stops Friday.

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who campaigns against immigration and Islamic fundamentalism, took to Twitter to offer her sympathy for law enforcement officers “once again targeted.” She canceled a minor campaign stop, but scheduled another.

Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron offered his thoughts to the family of the dead officer.

Socialist Benoit Hamon tweeted his “full support” to police against terrorism.

The two top finishers in Sunday’s election will advance to a runoff on May 7.