'It just never ends.' Trump decries Paris attack, suggests terror link

WASHINGTON — President Trump denounced an attack that killed a police officer in Paris on Thursday, saying it appeared to be a terrorist attack.

"Again it's happening it seems," he said. "So that's a terrible thing, and it's a very, very terrible thing going on in the world today."

Trump said he learned of the attack just before walking into a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni at the White House. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria later claimed responsibility.

"It looks like another terrorist attack, and what can you say? It just never ends, We have to to be strong and we have to be vigilant, and I've been saying it for a long time," Trump said.

The identity of the attacker wasn't immediately known, but Paris police said he targeted police officers along the high-profile Champs-Elysees shopping district. The attacker shot at least three police officers, killing one, before being killed himself, according to the Associated Press.

Gentiloni echoed what he called Trump's "words of condolences and closeness to the French people" and noted it was a delicate period in France, just three days before a hotly contested presidential election.

France has tightened security measures in advance of its presidential election on Sunday, and police say they thwarted a terror attack early in the week.