A machete-wielding man shouting "Allahu akbar" attacked French soldiers on patrol near the Louvre Museum in Paris on Friday in what officials described as a suspected terror attack.

The soldiers first tried to fight off the attacker and then opened fire, shooting him five times.

The attack at an entrance to a shopping mall that extends beneath the museum sowed panic and again highlighted the threat French officials say hangs over the country, which was hit repeatedly by extremist attacks in 2015 and last year.

A police union official said the man charged at the soldiers after they told him he could not bring his bags into the Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall underneath the world-famous museum where the Mona Lisa hangs.

The man brandished the machete and attacked a soldier, said the official, Yves Lefebvre.

The French Interior Ministry said anti-terrorism prosecutors were investigating. There were no immediate details about the identity of the attacker. "Allahu akbar" is the Arabic phrase for "God is great".

The attacker slightly injured one of the soldiers in the scalp, officials said. Another soldier opened fire, gravely wounding the attacker.

The attacker was shot in the stomach, Police Chief Michel Cadot said.