France pays tribute to victims of jihadist attack

MOURNERS packed a church in a rural French town rocked by a deadly Islamist attack yesterday for a service in tribute to the victims, who included a policeman who offered himself in place of a hostage.

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was shot and stabbed after taking the place of a woman whom Radouane Lakdim had been using as a human shield during his attack on Friday at a supermarket in the town of Trebes.

The sleepy town of 5 000, located on the picturesque Canal du Midi, is just 8km from the famed mediaeval walled city of Carcassonne, where a silent march is planned on Saturday, the eve of Easter Sunday.

The bishop of Carcassonne and Narbonne celebrated the mass in Trebes’ Church of Saint-Etienne to honour the four killed and three wounded in the attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

Others laid bouquets of white roses outside the town hall, with one message reading “Stop the violence, stop, stop”.

A national tribute will be held at a later date for Beltrame, who President Emmanuel Macron said had died a hero.

Lakdim, armed with a gun, knife and homemade explosive devices, was shot dead as police moved in to end his siege of the supermarket where he had holed up after a shooting spree in Carcassonne.

Earlier on Friday, the gunman had hijacked a car in Carcassonne and shot the two people inside, killing the passenger and leaving the Portuguese driver in a critical condition. He also shot and wounded a police officer out jogging.

Lakdim had already shot dead the supermarket’s butcher and a customer when Beltrame offered to take the place of a woman he had taken hostage. He killed the policeman before he was himself killed by anti-terror officers. – AFP