The southern terminal of Paris's Orly airport has reopened after security forces shot dead a man who tried to grab a female soldier's gun on Saturday.

The temporary closure of the airport left thousands of travelers stranded. Air traffic was suspended and all incoming flights were rerouted to Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Police secured the airport and searched for explosives, but none was found. 

Officials said the attacker was known to police and intelligence services for suspected links to radical Islam. He was said to be the same individual who fired on a police officer in northern Paris earlier in the day. An anti-terror investigation is underway.

According to AFP, the Orly Airport attacker was a 39-year-old French national named Ziyed Ben Belgacem, who grabbed a female soldier and put a gun to her head, seizing her assault rifle.

"Put your weapons down, hands on your heads. I'm here to die for Allah. In any case, people are going to die," the attacker told troops at the airport, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins revealed at a press conference.

Ben Belgacem tried to use the soldier as a human shield but she dropped to her knees, giving her two colleagues an opportunity to shoot him.

The attacker was carrying a petrol can in a backpack as well as a copy of the Koran, Molins said.

The incident comes as France remains on high alert following a series of jihadist attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives since January 2015.

The attacker's father, brother and 35-year-old cousin have all been detained for questioning, according to Molins. All three had made contact with the police themselves.