THREE KILLED IN FRANCE IN SHOOTING, HOSTAGETAKING

Three people were killed in southwestern France on Friday when a gunman held up a car, opened fire on police and then took hostages in a supermarket, screaming “Allahu Akbar”.

A source at the interior ministry said two had died at the hostage-taking in the small town of Trebes. “It is a provisional assessment as it could unfortunately get worse. Three people are wounded, including one of them seriously,” the source said.

Later, a police union official said the attacker had also killed one person with bullet in the head in the nearby town of Carcassonne before the hostage-taking.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the incident appeared to be a terrorist act.

Eric Menassi, the mayor of Trebes, told BFM TV that the hostage-taker was now alone with one police officer in the supermarket and all other hostages were free.

The station reported that the hostage-taker has claimed allegiance to Islamic State and that he has demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam — the prime surviving suspect in the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015.

French investigators believe they have identified the hostagetaker. The man is known to the intelligence services and flagged in a database of radicalised Islamist militants, Franceinfo reported.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said counter-terrorism prosecutors were investigating the incident but did not comment on the possible IS allegiance.REUTERS

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