On Euler-Poincare characteristics

It is well known that the Euler characteristic of the cohomology of a complex algebraic variety coincides with the Euler characteristic of its cohomology with compact support. An old result of G. Laumon asserts that a relative version of this statement is true in $\ell$-adic cohomology. The purpose of this note is to extend Laumon's result to the topological setting. Some applications are also discussed.