French officers in the southern city of Marseille are hunting gunmen, with suspected links to drug crime, who opened fire on a police car.

Officers were responding to reports that up to 10 people had been shooting Kalashnikov assault rifles in the air.

On arrival at the notorious La Castellane housing estate on Monday morning, police came under fire in their car.

Some 7,000 residents in the area were put on lockdown and ordered not to go outside.

A creche was also evacuated as police special forces were sent into the sealed-off estate, which is plagued by drug gangs and violence.

Marseille police chief, Pierre-Marie Bourniquel, said: "We sent up some helicopters to see what's happening from above.

"I won't let my team nor the population take any risks. Everything is in place and we are ready to intervene. We're going to conduct a search and try to find the guys, we think they're gone but we don't know yet. We must be very careful."

He added: "I suppose that they were aiming at the police cars with their revolving lights and sirens. Was the police the aim? I don't know but the shooting came our way.

"SWAT teams are scouting and will soon take action. Then one or two teams of police forces will watch the area night and day."

France has been on high alert in the wake of recent terror attacks that have hat left 20 people dead, including the gunmen.

However, it has been suggested the shooting in Marseille is drug-related.

Local politician Samia Ghali tweeted that La Castellane is in a "state of siege", adding it is was her "worst nightmare".

She later told BFMTV: "It's got everything - prostitution, drugs trafficking, violence.

"It's a dangerous cocktail and we saw evidence of that today."

Mr Valls had been due in the city to hail the "excellent" results of a crime crackdown in France's second largest city.

The shooting in Marseille comes as a senior French official said the country was stepping up its efforts to combat extremism.

Originally published at 11.00am