FRANCE MOURNS POLICEMAN WHO SWAPPED HIMSELF FOR HOSTAGE
Gunman with ISIL sympathies was under government surveillance but mounted lethal attack
A French policeman who was shot and stabbed after swapping himself for a hostage in a rampage and siege President Emmanuel Macron described as “an Islamist terrorist attack” died of his wounds yesterday, becoming the gunman’s fourth victim.
Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was among a group of officers who rushed to the scene in the town of Trebes in southwest France on Friday after the attacker, who claimed allegiance to ISIL, stormed a supermarket and fired at shoppers and staff.
Beltrame offered to take the place of a woman the gunman had taken hostage and was shot and badly wounded before anti-terrorist officers moved in to kill the attacker and end the siege.
“Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame has passed away,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on his Twitter account. “He died for his country. France will never forget his heroism.”
Mr Macron earlier paid tribute to the bravery of the police officer.
“He saved lives and honoured his colleagues and his country,” Mr Macron said.
The assailant, identified as 25-year-old Radouane Lakdim, killed another three people in France’s first major militant attack since October. “Our country has suffered an Islamist terrorist attack,” Mr Macron said in a televised address following the rampage in the town of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes.
ISIL claimed the attack was in response to its call to target western enemies, as is customary when the assailant has pledged allegiance to the extremist group.
The shootings came as France remains on high alert following a string of attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.
Senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Francois Molins said the gunman had convictions for carrying a banned weapon and for drug use.
“He had been on a watch list for his radicalisation and links to the Salafist movement,” Mr Molins told reporters in Carcassonne, adding that Lakdim had been tracked for his online contacts with extremists.
Security sources said Lakdim was born in Taza in northern Morocco and held French nationality.
His partner, who lived with him in Carcassonne, was detained, Mr Molins said.
Lakdim started his rampage in Carcassonne at about 10.30, hijacking a car and shooting the two people inside, Mr Molins said. The passenger was killed, and the driver remains in a critical condition.
Lakdim then shot and wounded a police officer who was jogging with colleagues before driving to nearby Trebes where he burst into the Super U supermarket. “The attacker entered the store shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) and saying he was a soldier of the Islamic State, ready to die for Syria,” Mr Molins said.
He demanded “the release of his brothers” from prison before shooting a supermarket customer and an employee dead.
“I was five metres away from him,” the store’s security guard said.
“He shot at me twice.” Luckily for the security guard, “he shot badly”.
About 50 people were in the supermarket at the time, and although some managed to escape, several remained inside.
Beltrame offered to take the place of a woman Lakdim was using as a shield while colleagues negotiated with the gunman, the interior minister said.
The officer “left his telephone on the table” to allow police who had surrounded the building to listen in, Mr Collomb said.
When special forces officers heard shots, they stormed the store, killing the gunman and recovering Beltrame, who was seriously wounded.
He was shot twice and stabbed several times by the attacker, a source close to the investigation told AFP.
Trebes, a town of 5,000 people along the Canal du Midi, was on lockdown throughout Friday as helicopters came and went from the scene and heavily armed and masked police officers carried out an operation in Lakdim’s neighbourhood.
The fact that Lakdim had been monitored as a potential extremist will raise difficult questions for the French government.
“We had monitored him and did not think he had been radicalised,” Mr Collomb said after flying to the scene.
“He was already under surveillance when he suddenly decided to act.”
In Paris, the lights on the Eiffel Tower were dimmed at midnight in a mark of respect for the victims of the attack and a minute’s silence was held at the Stade de France before a football match between France and Colombia.
Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame has passed away. He died for his country. France will never forget his heroism GERARD COLLOMB French Interior Minister