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French police kill gunman in supermarket siege that left 2 hostages dead

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking incident.
Credit: PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images
French security and police gather outside the Super U supermarket in the town of Trebes, southern France, where a man took hostages killing at least two before he was killed by security forces on March 23, 2018.

A gunman who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State was killed by police Friday in a hostage-taking incident at a supermarket in southern France that left two other people dead, authorities said.

The suspect had earlier killed one person while hijacking a car in a nearby town, police said.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said elite French forces, who had surrounded the store in the town of Trèbes during an hours-long siege, stormed the supermarket and killed the gunman after hearing shots inside.

The interior ministry identified the suspect as 26-year-old Redouane Lakdim, a petty criminal who was considered radicalized and under police surveillance.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking incident, France 24 reported.

Collomb said Lakdim killed three people in the two separate incidents on Friday. La Dépêche du Midi, the local newspaper, identified the supermarket victims as the store's butcher and a customer.

Investigators believe the suspect earlier hijacked a car after leaving the nearby town of Carcassonne, killing one person in the vehicle.

Collomb says Lakdim then shot at a group of police officers before hiding inside the supermarket.

He said a French police officer who had offered himself up as a hostage swap during the siege was seriously injured.

Collomb said the policeman “volunteered to swap his place with a hostage” at the store and stayed with the armed suspect. He managed to leave his cellphone switched on after the swap, however, establishing a contact with officers outside the supermarket in the standoff.

After claiming allegiance to the Islamic State and shouting "Allahu Akbar" — Arabic for God is the greatest — the gunman, also armed with grenades, began firing and spoke of avenging Syria, BFM-TV reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the incident at the Super U store appeared to be a terrorist attack.

France has seen a number of major terrorist attacks in the past few years. The most recent was in Nice in July 2016 when 86 people were mowed down by a truck and killed during Bastille Day festivities.

The French government put into place a state of emergency in 2015, which was lifted in October. Even so, in major tourist centers such as Paris, seeing security patrol in groups of four in the city center is common.

France is part of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

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