France's Kurds were the target of a "heinous attack" on Friday, President Emmanuel Macron said after a gunman killed three people at a Kurdish community center in central Paris.

"The Kurds of France have been the target of a heinous attack in the heart of Paris. Our thoughts are with the victims, the people who are struggling to live, their families and loved ones," Macron said in a tweet.

A gunman known to police opened fire on a community center and nearby Kurdish cafe in central Paris, killing three people and wounding three others. Prosecutors said they were looking into a possible racist motive behind the attack.

Multiple gunshots were fired on Rue d'Enghien, sowing panic on a street lined with small shops and cafes in the capital's busy central 10th arrondissement, or district. Authorities said they had arrested a 69-year-old man and the incident was now over.

"There are three dead, one person in intensive care and two people with serious injuries, and the suspect, who was arrested, has also been injured, notably to the face," prosecutor Laure Beccuau told reporters at the scene.

One witness told French news agency AFP that seven or eight shots had been fired. "It was Kurds who were targeted," said Juan-Golan Eliberg, an artist who works at the Kurdish center.

Julien Verplancke, who works at local restaurant Chez Minna, said staff from the Kurdish restaurant emerged from the premise in tears after the shooting.

The incident was a "terrible drama," district mayor Alexandra Cordebard told reporters. Two of those wounded had suffered life-threatening injuries, she said.

The prosecutor said the suspected gunman had been detained a year ago for an attack with a sabre on a migrant camp in Paris and investigated for a racially motivated crime. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the suspect's representatives.

Video editing: Tom Triebel