Jihadists linked to the Islamic State group have beheaded a Frenchman abducted in Algeria in a video posted online.
Herve Gourdel, a 55-year-old hiker from the southern French city of Nice, was kidnapped on Sunday by the Caliphate Soldiers.
The group had demanded that France stop its air strikes against IS in Iraq.
French President Francois Hollande confirmed the death of Mr Gourdel this evening.
The group published a video claiming responsibility for the abduction on Monday and showed the man identifying himself as Mr Gourdel.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had said then that the taking of a French hostage would not deter French participation in a US-led coalition of nations against Islamist State militants.
The kidnapping came after Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani urged the group's followers to attack citizens of the United States, France and other countries that joined the coalition to destroy the radical group.
France launched its first air strikes targeting Islamic State targets in Iraq on Friday.
It has said all must be done to rid the region of the group.
Mr Hollande said tonight that French military operations against IS militants would continue.
Western diplomats and intelligence sources say they believe there are fewer than ten Western hostages still held by Islamic State.
The IS group has recently killed two Americans, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British man David Haines.
They have threatened to kill another British man, Alan Henning.
The kidnapping was one of the first abductions of a foreigner by militants in Algeria since the north African country ended its decade-long war with Islamist fighters in the 1990s.
