French police hero dies saving hostage

TRÈBES: The mother of a French police officer who was killed after he swopped himself for a hostage during an Islamic extremist attack on a supermarket said she was not surprised by her son’s courage.

Colonel Arnaud Beltrame had offered himself up unarmed to the 25-year-old attacker in exchange for a female hostage in the southern town of Trèbes.

The attacker shot him and Beltrame later died of his injuries.

Beltrame’s mother told RTL radio on Friday night before the announcement of his death: “I’m not surprised. I knew it had to be him. He has always been like that. He’s someone, since he was born, who gives everything for his homeland.”

Asked if she was proud of him, she said he would have told her: “I’m doing my job mom, that’s all.”

She said to “defend the homeland” was his “reason for living”. RTL didn’t give her name.

France’s top security official said a heroic officer who swopped himself for a hostage during an attack on a supermarket died of his injuries.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb wrote in a tweet early on Saturday that Colonel Arnaud Beltrame had “died for his country”.

Beltrame offered himself up unarmed to the 25-year-old attacker in exchange for a female hostage.

He managed to surreptitiously leave his cellphone on so that police outside could hear what was going on inside the supermarket.

Officials said once they heard shots inside the market they decided to storm it, killing the gunman.

Beltrame was grievously injured, and his death raises the toll from the attack to four.

The Islamic State-linked Aamaq news agency said the attacker was responding to the group’s calls to target countries in the US-led coalition.

The attack was the deadliest since Emmanuel Macron became president last May.