French police kill suspect in supermarket attack

UPDATE: A French police officer who volunteered to take the place of one of the hostages in Friday’s terror attack at a supermarket in southern France has died from injuries suffered in the incident. Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame was among the first to respond to the attack. Once on the scene, he gave up his weapon and offered himself in exchange for a female hostage. When police stormed the Super-U in Trèbes, Beltrame was wounded. Three others died in the attack, and the gunman was also killed. Fifteen people were injured. Beltrame, 44, joined the elite police special forces in 2003, served in Iraq in 2005, was a member of the presidential guard, and earned France’s Order of Merit in 2012. He was married with no children. “Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement. “In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero.”

UPDATE (3/23/18, 3:41 p.m.): The man who attacked a supermarket in southern France on Friday called himself a “soldier of the Islamic State” when he stormed into the building in Trèbes. About 50 customers were in the store at the time. Sixteen people suffered injuries, including a police officer who offered to trade himself for one of the hostages. He remains in critical condition at an area hospital. Two people in the supermarket died, as did the driver of a car the gunman highjacked before the attack. Although counterterrosim officials flagged 26-year-old Redouane Lakdim as someone with radical tendencies, they did not believe he had plans for an attack. Lakdim, a Moroccan native, had a reputation as a small-time drug dealer. Police detained a woman close to him late Friday.

UPDATE (3/23/18, 11:57 a.m.): Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack at a supermarket in southern France. The ISIS-linked Aamaq news agency quoted one of the group’s leaders as saying “a soldier of the Islamic State” carried out the attack in response to calls to target “countries of the coalition.” French officials identified the attacker as 26-year-old Redouane Lakdim. Investigators had him under surveillance before the attack and claim he acted alone.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (3/23/18, 10:53 a.m.): French police on Friday shot dead a suspect who killed three people and injured about a dozen others during a hostage situation in southern France, according to officials. The suspect staged the attack inside the Super-U supermarket in the town of Trèbes. Earlier in the day, the attacker shot and injured a police officer after he opened fire on officers in the nearby town of Carcassonne. The Paris prosecutor’s office said the country’s counterterrorism team will investigate the incident. Eric Menassi, the mayor of Trèbes, told the LCI news channel the attacker entered the supermarket shouting, “Allahu Akbar, I’ll kill you all.” Officials described the attacker as a radicalized petty criminal under surveillance. During the hostage standoff, he demanded the release of the sole surviving assailant from the 2015 Paris attacks.