French officer hailed as hero after attack at market
Three killed in hostage-taking by ISIL gunman
A French policeman who was shot by an Islamist gunman when he swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege has been hailed a hero after the attacker was killed.
The gun-wielding extremist had unleashed a wave of bloodshed in a quiet corner of southern France on Friday, killing three people as he hijacked a car, opening fire on police and then taking hostages in a supermarket, where panicked shoppers hid in a meat freezer or ran through the aisles.
The 26-year-old attacker was slain as police stormed the market with the help of the heroic officer who had switched places with a female captive and suffered life-threatening wounds — one of 16 people injured in the day’s violence.
The officer was identified as Arnaud Beltrame. He managed to surreptitiously leave his phone on so that police outside could hear what was going on inside the supermarket — and crucially, decide when to storm it.
“He saved lives,” said President Emmanuel Macron.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the rampage near Carcassonne, a medieval city beloved by tourists, and the town of Trebes.
Macron said investigators will focus on establishing how the gunman, identified as Redouane Lakdim, obtained his weapon, and how he became radicalized. He was known to police for petty crime and drug-dealing and was under surveillance — but not suspected of extremist links.
The hours-long drama began in the morning when he hijacked a car near Carcassonne, killing one person in the car and wounding the other, according to French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.
Lakdim then fired six shots at police officers who were on their way back from jogging, said Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of SGP Police-FO police union. One officer was hit in the shoulder, but the injury was not serious, Lefebvre said.
Lakdim then went to a supermarket in nearby Trebes, 100 kilometres southeast of Toulouse, shooting and killing two people in the market and taking an unknown number of hostages.
“We heard an explosion — well, several explosions,” shopper Christian Guibbert told reporters. “So I went to see what was happening and I saw a man lying on the floor and another person, very agitated, who had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other.” He described the assailant as a “very agitated man shouting several times ‘Allahu akbar,”’ or “God is great” in Arabic.
Guibbert said he led his wife and sister-in-law and nearby customers into the meat freezer. Then he went back to see where the assailant was and called police to describe the situation.
“At that moment, he (the suspect) ran after me. Of course I left, I lost him and when I turned around he wasn’t there anymore. I took an emergency door and saw the police arrive,” he said.
Special police units converged on the scene while authorities blocked roads.
Another employee identified as Jacky told Europe 1 radio he “heard people shouting and a big boom.”’
“It was a gunshot,” he said. “Then a second gunshot. After that, my colleagues came towards me saying: ‘Come on Jacky, we need to leave, there’s someone who’s firing shots, he’s shouting “Allahu akbar,” and he’s shot people and he’s shooting at everything.’ We have an emergency exit behind the butcher’s stall and we ran away across the courtyard. We also helped people get out.”
Collomb said a police team “managed to get some of the people out,” but the attacker kept one hostage back as a human shield.
Beltrame, a 45-year-old lieutenant-colonel, then offered to take the hostage’s place and remained holed up while negotiations continued. He “left his telephone on the table” to allow police to listen in, said Collomb.
As the standoff reached a crescendo, police heard gunshots and decided to storm the building. Lakdim was killed and two other officers were wounded during the assault, Collomb said.