Gunman slays four in France
Took hostages at supermarket before police killed him
TREBES, France — A gun-wielding extremist went on a rampage Friday in southern France, killing three people as he hijacked a car, opened fire on police and took hostages in a supermarket.
After an hourslong standoff, the 25-year-old attacker was slain as elite police forces stormed the market. They were aided by a police officer who had offered himself up in a hostage swap and suffered life-threatening wounds — one of 16 people injured in the day’s violence.
The officer died early Saturday, France’s interior minister said.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack near Carcassonne, a medieval city beloved by tourists, and the town of Trebes. It was the deadliest attack in France since Emmanuel Macron became president last May.
The officer who volunteered to take the place of a female hostage was identified as Col. Arnaud Beltrame. He managed to leave his cellphone on so 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. “He saved lives,” Macron said. Macron said investigators will focus on establishing how the gunman, identified by prosecutors as Moroccan-born Redouane Lakdim, got his weapon and how he became radicalized.
Lakdim was known to police for petty crime and drug-dealing. But he was also under surveillance and since 2014 was on the so-called “Fiche S” list, a government register of individuals suspected of being radicalized but who have yet to perform acts of terrorism.
Despite this, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said there was “no warning sign” that Lakdim would carry out an extremist attack.
A woman close to Lakdim was taken into custody over alleged links with a terrorist enterprise, Molins said. He did not identify her.
The four-hour drama began when Lakdim hijacked a car near Carcassonne, killing one person in the car and wounding the other, the prosecutor said.
Lakdim then fired six shots at police officers who were on their way back from jogging near Carcassonne, said Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of SGP Police-fo police union.
Lakdim then went to a Super U supermarket in nearby Trebes, 60 miles southeast of Toulouse, shooting and killing two people in the market and taking an unknown number of hostages.