3 killed in terrorist attack

PARIS. - At least three people were killed yesterday in a shooting spree and hostage siege in southwest France by a man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group.

The gunman - a 26-year-old drug dealer monitored as a possible Islamic extremist - carried out three separate shootings in the medieval town of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes where he ended his rampage by taking hostages at a supermarket.

“We had monitored him and did not think he had been radicalised. He was already under surveillance when he suddenly decided to act,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters after flying to scene.

Named as Redouane Lakdim and said by security sources to have Moroccan nationality, the gunman first hijacked a car in Carcassonne, killing a passenger and injuring the driver, before shooting and injuring a policeman who was out jogging.

After driving around 15 minutes to a Super U supermarket in the sleepy town of Trebes, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), a witness reported.

He killed another two people and took hostages for more than three hours, armed with a knife and a gun, according to survivors. Another witness said he had grenades.

During the stand-off with police, he asked for unidentified prisoners to be released and was finally shot by anti-terror officers when they raided the premises.

“People were in complete peace here,” Collomb said in Trebes, a picturesque town of 5 000 people located along the famed Canal du Midi.

“No one could have imagined that there could be an attack.”

Collomb also hailed the “act of heroism” of a local policeman who agreed to exchange himself for Lakdim’s last hostage, a woman, in the final stages of the drama.

The officer was injured in the assault by France’s elite anti-terror police who have been called into action on multiple occasions over the last few years during a series of jihadist atrocities.

The Islamic State group claimed the attack was in response to its call to target its Western enemies - as is customary when the assailant has pledged allegiance to the jihadists.

A total of three people were killed and three people were injured by the gunman. An anti-terror policeman was also injured during the raid to end the siege.