FRANCE ATTACK: OFFICER WHO OFFERED TO BE HOSTAGE DIES

A French police officer who offered himself up to an extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage has died, the interior minister said on Saturday.

Col Arnaud Beltrame was among the first officers to respond to the attack on the supermarket in the south of France on Friday. His death, announced by French interior minister Gerard Collomb, raises the toll to four. The gunman was also killed, and 15 people were injured in the attack.

The gunman, identified by prosecutors as Moroccan-born Redouane Lakdim, hijacked a car and opened fire on police, then took hostages inside a supermarket. Baltrame volunteered to take the place of a female hostage.

During the standoff, Lakdim requested the release of Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving assailant of the November 13, 2015, attacks in Paris.

The Islamic State-linked Amaq news agency said Lakdim was responding to the group’s calls to target countries in the US-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against IS militants.

French President Emmanuel Macron said investigators will focus on establishing how the gunman got his weapon and how he became radicalised.

A woman close to Lakdim was taken into custody over alleged links with a terrorist enterprise, Molins said. AGENCIES

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