France: Suspect killed in terror hostage standoff

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS (AA) - Following a deadly hostage standoff at a supermarket, a gunman in southern France has been killed by security forces, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Friday.

"The hostage-taker was shot," Collomb told a press conference in the town of Trebes, in the Aude department, at the scene of the hours-long standoff.

Collomb said the gunman had killed three people before being taken down.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Premier Edouard Philippe said earlier the incident has all the signs of a terrorist attack.

Broadcaster BFMTV said the hostage-taker was known to French security services and had demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, who is in jail awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.

Some media reports said the gunman had been identified through his car license plate as a 25-year-old local, of Moroccan origin.

Before entering the supermarket, the gunman had fired on at four police officers jogging in the nearby town of Carcassonne, injuring at least one, according to BFMTV. He later fled by car and entered the Super U supermarket around 11 am local time (10:46 GMT).

According to Bruno Bartocetti, regional representative of the SGP police union, the attacker killed a man with a bullet to the head in Carcassonne before taking the hostages. It is not known if that incident took place before the shooting at the police or after.

The Aude prosecutor said the attacker claimed to be a “soldier of Daesh”, according to French radio France Info.

Paris anti-terrorist prosecutors have opened a probe.

This is the first suspected terrorist incident since Macron lifted a two-year state of emergency last autumn and toughened anti-terror laws.