A suspect has been killed after hostages were taken in a supermarket in a small town in the south of France Friday afternoon. The incident, which officials are treating as a terror attack, has been taken over by anti-terrorism officials and has left at least three hostages dead and about a dozen injured, officials said.
A gunman took hostages at the Super U, a French supermarket in the southern French town of Trebes, Friday afternoon.
The suspect fired six shots at police officers earlier that morning as they were on their way back from jogging in Carcassonne, according to the Associated Press. An officer had a shoulder injury, which Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of the SGP Police-FO union, described as non-life-threatening.
Authorities said the suspect shot and killed three people and approximately a dozen are injured, the Associated Press reported. Previously, officials said at least one victim was still inside the supermarket seriously injured. The victim’s injury was described as life-threatening, according to a police union official.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb identified the suspect as Redouane Lakdim, 26. He added that Lakdim was a “petty criminal and small-time drug dealer” who became radicalized and was under police surveillance.
Lefebvre also confirmed that the suspect was shot to death by police.
Several French news reports said that Mr. Lakdim had demanded the release of Mr. Abdeslam — the sole surviving member of the Islamic State group that killed 130 people in and around Paris in a series of coordinated attacks in November 2015 — from detention in France.
France continues to be on high alert after deadly terrorist attacks struck the country in 2015 and 2016, mainly in Paris and Nice. Although there have not been any large attacks since the one in Nice in July 2016, there have been several smaller-scale assaults by lone individuals, and the French authorities regularly announce that new plots have been thwarted.
