French police on Thursday shot and killed a man wielding a machete near a school in the southeastern town of La Seyne-sur-Mer, prosecutors said.

The "threatening" individual refused to comply with police orders and moved towards the officers, who first used an electroshock weapon and then fired six shots at the man, said public prosecutor Samuel Finielz.

He said they aimed at the man's lower body but he died of his injuries at the scene.

The incident took place shortly before 5:00 pm near a nursery school, according to a police source.

"It appears that the children were threatened," Finielz said, adding that no one was harmed.

Officers arriving at the scene saw the man carrying a weapon that appeared to be a machete "with a blade several dozen centimetres long," he said.

They ordered him "to drop his weapon on the ground, which he did not do," he said.

The incident took place as hundreds of thousands of people across France took to the streets in a show of anger over the government's austerity policies.

French authorities have been under pressure to crack down on crime near schools following a series of knife attacks on teachers and students in recent years. (AFP)