French police secure an area in Villejuif near Paris, France. Reuters

The man had attacked "several people" in the suburb of Villejuif before he was "neutralised," the Paris police department said.

The attacker was shot dead by police after he fled to a neighbouring suburb. Police did not provide any potential motive for the attack.

The number two at the interior ministry, Laurent Nunez, travelled to the scene of the stabbings accompanied by Paris police chief Didier Lallement.

France remains on high alert after being hit by a string of attacks by jihadist extremists since 2015, with more than 250 killed in total.

The attack came just four days before France marks the fifth anniversary of the killing of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two brothers vowing allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

The day after that attack, a man linked to Daesh group shot and killed a policewoman in a Paris suburb before taking hostages at a Jewish supermarket the following day, killing four more people.

Police eventually killed all three attackers but it was the beginning of the wave of strikes on French territory.