DHAKA: A policewoman was killed and a city employee was seriously hurt on Thursday after a man opened fire with an automatic rifle outside Paris, police said, but no link has yet been established with Wednesday’s deadly attack on a satirical magazine.

The gunman is still on the run, said interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve — who rushed to the scene at Malakoff just south of the city — contradicting information given earlier by a source close to the case, who said the suspect had been detained.

Police initially said the two victims were critical, but later said policewoman succumbed to her injuries.

Several mosques have been attacked across France a day after masked gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people, the media reported on Thursday quoting officials.

A ‘criminal’ explosion occurred early Thursday at a kebab shop near a mosque in the eastern French town of Villefranche-sur-Saone, officials said, but left no casualties.

‘It is a criminal act,’ a local official told the media, adding that a police investigation has been opened. No link was suggested with the deadly attack on Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo a day earlier.

BDST: 1631 HRS, JAN 08, 2015