Three people have been killed after a gunman stole a car, fired shots at police officers and then took hostages at a local supermarket in the small town of Trebes, southern France.
The supermarket was later stormed by police and shot dead the attacker. His death was confirmed by French authorities on Twitter.
According to French officials, the gunman claimed allegiance to ISIS. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called the incident an ”act of terrorism” and went further to say ”All the information we have at the moment leads us to believe that this was an act of terrorism”.
Around 10 AM local time in the nearby village of Carcassonne, the attacker held a car and killed the driver and fled the scene leaving one person wounded according to local news outlets.
Police officers returning from jogging were fired upon by the gunman, an officer was slightly injured after being hit on the shoulder.
The gunman then drove the stolen car to a Super U supermarket in the nearby town of Trebes, some 100 km southeast of Toulouse, where he entered the supermarket shooting 2 people dead.
He was able to take a police officer hostage after civilians were able to escape the supermarket. The officer volunteered himself to be swapped with a hostage. The police officer was badly injured during the assault as confirmed in a statement by Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.
The hostage-taker demanded the release of Saleh Abdeslam, the lone survivor who’s now on trial for his involvement in the November 2015 Paris attacks which left 130 civilians dead and seven of the attackers killed.
Local media reports suggest the unidentified suspect’s mother and sister tried to persuade him to surrender. Security forces indicated they wanted to take him alive, so he could have his day in court.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst
