JERUSALEM (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande on Monday said a gunman who critically wounded a photographer at leftwing newspaper Liberation "could still kill" and must be arrested.

The priority is "to stop this threat to life, who tried to kill and could still kill tomorrow or at any time," said Mr Hollande, who is on a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

After fleeing the daily's office in the east of Paris, the shooter crossed the city to the La Defense business district, where he fired several shots outside the headquarters of the Societe Generale bank, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Police said they were also checking a statement by a car driver who claimed to have been briefly taken hostage by a gunman near La Defense and forced to drop him off close to the Champs-Elysees.

That triggered a major police operation in and around the French capital's most famous avenue.

Police said a 27-year-old man was in a critical state in a Paris hospital after being shot by the gunman at around 10.15 am local time.

Liberation said the victim - who had just arrived for his first day's freelance work at the newspaper - suffered buckshot wounds to his stomach and chest.