The gendarme arrived in the northern French town of Isbergues with a colleague to find a man who threatened them with the long-bladed weapon outside his home, regional newspaper La Voix du Nord said.
Gendarmes are police-style units often used for law enforcement in France’s rural areas.
The paper said that the gendarmes tried unsuccessfully to neutralise the man with tasers, before drawing their service weapons.
One of them shot and killed the man, the source said.
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