Trebes, France - Three people were
killed in southwestern France on Friday when a gunman held up a
car, opened fire on police and then took hostages in a
supermarket, screaming "Allahu Akbar".
Police later stormed the supermarket in the small town of
Trebes and Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Twitter that
the attacker had been killed.
A source at the Interior Ministry said two had died at the
hostage-taking in Trebes. "It is a provisional assessment as it
could unfortunately get worse. Three people are wounded,
including one of them seriously," the source said.
Later, a police union official said the attacker had also
killed one person with a bullet in the head in the nearby
historic town of Carcassonne before the hostage-taking.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the incident appeared
to be a terrorist attack and security forces were securing the
area.
Eric Menassi, the mayor of Trebes, told BFM TV that the
hostage-taker was now alone with one police officer in the
supermarket and all other hostages were free.
The station reported that the hostage-taker has claimed
allegiance to Islamic State and that he has demanded the release
of Salah Abdeslam - the prime surviving suspect in the Islamic
State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015.
A 45-year-old lieutenant-colonel swapped himself in exchange
for one of the hostages, a source close to the investigation
said later, confirming information first published by Le Figaro
newspaper.
More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks
since 2015 by assailants who pledged allegiance to, or were
inspired by, Islamic State.
#France shooting: One police officer took the place of a hostage so he could leave #Trèbes' supermarket. Follow the situation as it unfolds here: https://t.co/ZWRNdeIr1o pic.twitter.com/wpQyElVBSp
— FRANCE 24 (@FRANCE24) March 23, 2018
COLD ROOM
First the gunman held up a car, killing one person and
wounding another. Then he fired one police officers in
Carcassone, wounding an officer in the shoulder before heading
to Trebes about 8 km (5 miles) to the east, where two more died
in the Super-U supermarket.
Menassi also told LCI TV that the man had entered the shop
in Trebes screaming "Allahu Akbar, (God is greatest) I'll kill
you all".
Carole, who was shopping at the supermarket, described how
people had taken refuge in a cold room.
"A man shouted and fired several times. I saw a cold room
door, I asked people to come and take shelter," she told
Franceinfo radio. "We were ten, and we stayed an hour. There
were more gunshots and we went out the back door."
French investigators believe they have identified the
hostage-taker. The man is known to the intelligence services and
flagged in a database of radicalised Islamist militants,
Franceinfo reported.
#BREAKING The hostage-taker at #Trèbes is known to security services and is demanding the release of Salah Abdeslam who is in jail awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. Believed 8-10 hostages. pic.twitter.com/W9ZSzDFbIq
— Lucid Hurricane™✘ (@AmazingLucid) March 23, 2018
Police in helmets and body armour took up positions around
the Super-U supermarket.
The Paris prosecutor's office said counter-terrorism
prosecutors were investigating the incident but did not comment
on the possible Islamic State allegiance.
Earlier, the Interior Ministry had said security forces
were carrying out an operation at a supermarket in southern
France. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb was on his way.
The UNSA police union also said on Twitter a police
operation was underway after an individual had earlier shot at
four officers in the Carcassone region, wounding one of them.