An armed man was killed in Paris on Monday afternoon after he rammed a car into a police convoy on the Champs-Elysees, French authorities said.

A convoy of vehicles belonging to the gendarmerie, one of France's police forces, was travelling on the Champs-Elysees about 3.40pm when a man drove up in a Renault Megane and struck the lead vehicle in the convoy, said Johanna Primevert, a spokeswoman for the Paris police prefecture. The car caught on fire, and orange smoke could be seen billowing from the vehicle.

"It looks like this was a deliberate act," Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told reporters at the scene.

The man, who was known to French security services, died in the incident, officials said. No bystanders were injured.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the man's car was carrying weapons and explosives that could have caused a blast.

Some French news outlets, quoting anonymous police officials, reported that the car contained gas canisters, several handguns and a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Early reports suggested that the assailant was a man in his early 30s, from the Paris suburb of Argenteuil, who had an S-file, meaning that he was one of thousands of people who have been flagged for potential terrorism-related concerns, although the government does not have enough evidence to arrest them.

"This once again shows that the threat level in France is extremely high," Mr Collomb told journalists near the scene.

French television showed police officers cordoning off the area, not far from the Elysee Palace, the official residence of the French president. Nearby subway stations were closed, officials said.

The Paris prosecutor's office opened a terrorism investigation.

Police and military officers in France have been targeted by a string of attacks in recent months and years.

In June 2016, France was horrified by the killing of a police officer and his companion in Magnanville, a small town near Paris, by a man who pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

In February, a 29-year-old man armed with two large knives and shouting "God is great" in Arabic lunged at a military patrol near an entrance to the Louvre in Paris and wounded a soldier. The assailant was shot by another soldier.

In March, a gunman was killed at Orly Airport, south of Paris, after attacking a soldier.

In April, days before the first round of France's presidential elections, a gunman wielding an assault rifle shot at police officers on the Champs-Elysees, killing one. The gunman was shot dead by the police as he tried to flee on foot.

This month, a man was arrested in Paris after he used a hammer to attack police officers patrolling in front of Notre-Dame cathedral. The assailant was shot and wounded.

New York Times