A French police officer who offered himself up to an extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage during a deadly supermarket siege in southwestern France has died of his injuries, the interior minister said Saturday.
Col. Arnaud Beltrame was among the first officers to respond to the attack on the supermarket in the south of France on Friday. His death, announced by French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, raises the toll to four. The gunman was also killed, and 15 people were injured in the attack.
The gendarme, or policeman, had been left fighting for his life after being hit by gunfire inside the Super U supermarket in the town of Trèbes before elite police raided the premises and killed the attacker, who had burst into the store yelling “Allahu Akbar”.
“Dead for his country. France will never forget his heroism, bravery and sacrifice,” Collomb said in a Twitter message posted early Saturday.
Responding to the news of Beltrame’s demise, French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to “a fallen hero” who has earned “the admiration of the nation”.
The four-hour drama began at 10.30am local time on Friday morning, when the gunman first hijacked a car, killing one person in the southwestern citadel town of Carcassonne. He then opened fire on policemen on a morning jog, injuring one officer. He then drove to Trèbes and took hostages inside a supermarket.
Baltrame volunteered to take the place of a female hostage and surreptitiously left his cellphone on, so police outside could hear what was happening inside the store.
Officials said the decision was made to storm the building when they heard shots fired.
Macron has said investigators will focus on establishing how the gunman, identified by prosecutors as Moroccan-born Redouane Lakdim, got his weapon and how he became radicalised.
On Friday night, authorities searched a vehicle and a building in central Carcassonne.
Lakdim was known to police for petty crime and drug dealing. He was under surveillance and since 2014 was on the so-called “Fiche S” list, a government register of individuals suspected of being radicalised but who have yet to perform acts of terrorism.
Despite this, Paris prosecutor François Molins said there was “no warning sign” that Lakdim would carry out an attack.
During the hostage drama, Lakdim shouted “Allahu akbar! (God is great)” and said he was a “soldier of the Islamic State” as he entered the Super U, where about 50 people were inside, Molins said.