France is to honour the policeman who died after intervening in yesterday's terrorist attack in Carcasonne and Trebes.
Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame has been hailed a hero after taking the place of a hostage during an armed siege at a supermarket.
Lt Col Beltrame, who once served in Iraq, was taken to hospital after the siege in which he took the place of a female hostage at the Super U store in the town of Trebes, near the Pyrenees mountains that divide France and Spain.
"He fell as a hero, giving up his life to halt the murderous outfit of a jihadist terrorist," President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement early this morning.
Le lieutenant-colonel Arnaud Beltrame nous a quittés.
— Gérard Collomb (@gerardcollomb) March 24, 2018
Mort pour la patrie.
Jamais la France n’oubliera son héroïsme, sa bravoure, son sacrifice.
Le coeur lourd, j’adresse le soutien du pays tout entier à sa famille, ses proches et ses compagnons de la @Gendarmerie de l’Aude. pic.twitter.com/I1h8eO7f9a
France is to organise a national tribute in Lt Col Beltrame's honour, the president's office announced after he met with members of the government and officials involved in the attack investigation. It gave no further details.
The attacker was identified by authorities as Redouane Lakdim, a 25-year-old Moroccan-born French national from the city of Carcassonne, not far from Trebes, a tranquil town of about 5,000 people where he struck yesterday afternoon.
Lakdim was known to authorities for drug-dealing and other petty crimes, but had also been under surveillance by security services in 2016-2017 for links to the radical Salafist movement, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
Three people were killed and 16 injured in the incident, which began when Lakdim shot at a group of police joggers and also shot the occupants of a car he stole.
Lt-Col Beltrame's death takes the number killed to four.
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He was part of a team of gendarmes who were among the first to arrive at the supermarket scene; most of the people in the supermarket escaped after hiding in a cold storage room and then fleeing through an emergency exit.
He offered to trade places with a hostage the attacker was still holding, where after he took her place and left his mobile phone on a table, line open. When shots rang out, elite police stormed the building to kill the assailant. Police sources said Lt-Col Beltrame was shot three times.
Police arrested two people after the attack, one of them a woman connected to Lakdim, yesterday and a 17-year-old man said to be one of his friends overnight, judicial sources said.
The so-called Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Mr Macron has said security services are checking that claim.
More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks since 2015 by assailants who either pledged allegiance to Islamic State or were inspired by the group.
France is part of a group of countries whose warplanes have been bombing IS strongholds in Iraq and Syria, where the group has lost substantial ground in recent months.
One multiple attack by Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in Paris while another killed close to 90 when a man ran a truck into partying crowds in the Riviera seaside city of Nice.
Lt-Col Beltrame, who was 44, was a qualified parachutist who served for a time in Iraq in 2005 and also worked as part of the elite Republican Guard that protects the French president's Elysee Palace offices and residence in Paris, Mr Macron said.
The Super U store was the first deadly attack since October 2017, when a man stabbed two young women to death in the port city of Marseille before soldiers killed him.
Several attacks over the past year or more have targeted police and soldiers deployed in big numbers to protect civilians and patrol sensitive spots such as airports and train stations.
Mr Macron said of the police officer: "In offering himself as a hostage to the terrorist holed up in the Trebes supermarket, Lieutenant Colonel Beltrame saved the life of a civilian hostage, showing exceptional self-sacrifice and courage."
The news of Lt-Col Beltrame's death was first announced France's interior minister, who said in a Twitter post: "Dead for his country. France will never forget his heroism, bravery and sacrifice."
THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE: The GRA sends its heartfelt condolences to the family of the gendarme whom gave his life to save others in France yesterday. An exceptional act of bravery from an extraordinary man. Fallen a hero. Repose en Paix. pic.twitter.com/HO4Orj4EaJ
— GRA (@gardarep) March 24, 2018
Speaking in Carcassonne, Mr Molins said said Lakdim's partner was suspected of "association with criminals with the aim of carrying out a terrorist act".
"Investigations are under way to find out where the gun came from, how he [Lakdim] got hold of it, and to learn if he had any accomplices," he added.
Portugal's government has said that a Portuguese citizen was one of the four people killed in the incident.
"The death of a Portuguese citizen has been confirmed... by French authorities to our consular services," Miguel Silva, a spokesman for the department concerned with Portuguese living abroad, said.
He added that he was unable to give further details on the victim.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the victim in a statement published late yesterday on the presidency website.
