'Gunman takes hostages' at supermarket in France.

[BIAD]

France shooting: Hostage swap officer 'fighting for life'.

'A police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege is fighting for his life in hospital,
French President Emmanuel Macron says. The gendarme, whom media named as Arnaud Beltrame, helped
bring an end to a gunman's shooting spree that killed three in southern France.

The gunman - 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim - said he was fighting on behalf of the Islamic State group.
He was shot dead by French police after mounting three separate attacks.

Sixteen people were injured, two seriously, in what Mr Macron called an act of "Islamist terrorism".
The suspect is said to have been demanding the release of Salah Abdeslam, the most important surviving
suspect in the 13 November 2015 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people.

He was shot several times, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters. One person -believed to be
Lakdim's partner - has been arrested in connection with the shootings.

The violence began on Friday morning in Carcassonne, where Lakdim hijacked a car, killing one passenger
-whose body was later found hidden in a bush -and injuring the driver.
He then shot and wounded a policeman who was jogging with colleagues.

Lakdim is then believed to have driven a few kilometres to the small town of Trèbes, where he charged into
the Super-U supermarket, shouting, "I am a soldier of Daesh [Islamic State]!" and took hostages.
Carole, who was shopping at the supermarket, said people hid in a cold room.

"A man shouted and fired several times. I saw a cold room door, I asked people to come and take shelter,"
she told France info radio. "There were 10 of us, and we stayed an hour. There were more gunshots and we
went out the emergency back door."

Interior Minister Gérard Collomb told reporters that police officers managed to get some people out, but that
the gunman held one woman back as a human shield.

It was at this point, he said, that the 45-year-old gendarme volunteered to swap himself for her -and left his
mobile phone on a table with an open line so police could monitor the situation.
When police heard gunshots, a tactical team stormed the supermarket.
The gunman was killed but the gendarme was seriously injured, and another officer was also hurt.

Mr Collomb hailed the "heroism and courage" of the gendarme, a lieutenant-colonel.
President Macron said he had "saved lives and honoured his colleagues and his country".

What do we know about the suspect?
Redouane Lakdim, reportedly from a Moroccan background, was known to French intelligence services,
said Mr Collomb. "He was known for petty crimes," including small-time drug-dealing, he said.
"We had monitored him and thought there was no radicalisation," he said.

Has very active on Salafist social networks and incarcerated in Carcassonne in 2016, reports Le Parisien.
Salafism is a hardline offshoot of Sunni Islam.
He is also suspected of making a trip to Syria, though that is unconfirmed, Le Parisien adds.

Lakdim lived in an apartment in Carcassonne with his parents and several sisters. A neighbour saw him
taking one of his sisters to school on Friday morning.
The family's apartment was raided by police on Friday afternoon...'

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One can only assume that by inviting more 'refugees' into France, this sort of problem will go away.
With that, I'll now go back to my meds.