French police race to identify Paris attacker as Daesh claims attack

French investigators have scrambled to identify a knifeman who killed one person and wounded four others in a suspected terror attack that brought panic once more to the streets of Paris, France 24 reported.

An assailant shouting “Allahu akbar” was shot dead by police in central Paris late Saturday, minutes after he attacked people near the city’s main opera house an area full of bars, restaurants and theatres which were brimming on a weekend night.

Daesh claimed responsibility, according to the SITE monitoring group, but provided no corroborating proof to back their assertion.

"The executor of the stabbing operation in the city of Paris is a soldier of the Islamic State and the operation was carried out in response to the calls to target the coalition states," a "security source" told Daesh's official Amaq news agency.