The man attacked another soldier before being shot near the museum's shopping mall,
police said, adding a second person had also been detained after acting suspiciously.
The attacker was alive but seriously wounded, the head of Paris police Michel Cadot told
reporters at the scene, adding the bags he had been carrying contained no explosives.
"The soldier fired five bullets," Cadot said, describing how the man hurried threateningly
towards the soldiers.
"It was an attack by a person ... who represented a direct threat and whose actions
suggested a terrorist context."
An anti-terrorism inquiry has been opened, the public prosecutor said in a statement.
The identity and nationality of the attacker remains unknown for now, French Interior
Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told reporters.
Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called the attack "terrorist in nature" after the incident
which led streets around the world-famous museum to be sealed off.
The shooting comes with France on its highest state of alert with thousands of troops
patrolling the capital following a string of attacks in the last few years.
Soldiers in uniform carrying automatic rifles are regularly seen walking in the area around
the Louvre, which is one of the main tourist attractions in Paris
drawing millions of visitors every year.
The huge former royal palace in the heart of the city is home to the Mona Lisa
other renowned works of art but also a shopping complex and numerous exhibition spaces.
"The people who were in the museum - there were about 250 of them - were held at a distance
and confined in secure areas of the Louvre," Cadot said.
"We will start taking them out in small groups."
Tourists leaving Louvre area. Heavily guarded. Media also here. pic.twitter.com/i05UJYegtS— Liyana Othman (@LiyanaOthmanCNA) February 3, 2017
"I was going upstairs and all of a sudden, many people rushed to me," said Muzhi Feng
a Chinese tourist who was on holiday with his family. "I didn't know what happened.
Someone told me that there (were) three shotguns [sic]," he told Channel NewsAsia.
He said they ran to the bathroom, and after about half an hour later
the group was told it was safe.
SERIES OF ATTACKS
France has been hit by a series of militant attacks over the past two years that
have killed more than 230 people and which have been claimed
by the militant group Islamic State.
The most recent deadly attack took place in the southern city of Nice when
a man drove a truck into a crowd on the seafront killing 86.
Two potential attacks were thwarted in September including one
by a group of women who parked a car containing gas canisters near Paris's
Notre Dame Cathedral.
The country is less than three months away from a presidential election
in which security and fears of terrorism are among the key issues.
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