TREBES, France (Reuters) –23 March 2018- The man who killed at least three people in attacks in southern France was a 26-year old known for petty crimes and possession of drugs, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters, adding that he acted alone.
Collomb named the attacker as Redouane Lakdim and said he was from nearby Carcassonne, where the attacks started.
“He was known for petty crimes. We had monitored him and thought there was no radicalization,” Collomb said.

TREBES, France (Reuters) – 23 March 2018- Three people were killed in southwestern France on Friday when a gunman held up a car, opened fire on police and then took hostages in a supermarket, screaming “Allahu Akbar”.
A source at the Interior Ministry said two had died at the hostage-taking in Trebes. “It is a provisional assessment as it could unfortunately get worse. Three people are wounded, including one of them seriously,” the source said.
Later, a police union official said the attacker had also killed one person with a bullet in the head in the nearby historic town of Carcassonne before the hostage-taking.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the incident appeared to be a terrorist attack and security forces were securing the area.
Eric Menassi, the mayor of Trebes, told BFM TV that the hostage-taker was now alone with one police officer in the supermarket and all other hostages were free.
The station reported that the hostage-taker has claimed allegiance to Islamic State and that he has demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam – the prime surviving suspect in the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015.
A 45-year-old lieutenant-colonel swapped himself in exchange for one of the hostages, a source close to the investigation said later, confirming information first published by Le Figaro newspaper.
More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks since 2015 by assailants who pledged allegiance to, or were inspired by, Islamic State.
COLD ROOM
First the gunman held up a car, killing one person and wounding another. Then he fired one police officers in Carcassone, wounding an officer in the shoulder before heading to Trebes about 8 km (5 miles) to the east, where two more died in the Super-U supermarket.
Menassi also told LCI TV that the man had entered the shop in Trebes screaming “Allahu Akbar, (God is greatest) I’ll kill you all”.
Carole, who was shopping at the supermarket, described how people had taken refuge 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 Franceinfo radio. “We were ten, and we stayed an hour. There were more gunshots and we went out the back door.”
French investigators believe they have identified the hostage-taker. The man is known to the intelligence services and flagged in a database of radicalized Islamist militants, Franceinfo reported.
Police in helmets and body armor took up positions around the Super-U supermarket.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said counter-terrorism prosecutors were investigating the incident but did not comment on the possible Islamic State allegiance.
Earlier, the Interior Ministry had said security forces were carrying out an operation at a supermarket in southern France. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb was on his way.
The UNSA police union also said on Twitter a police operation was underway after an individual had earlier shot at four officers in the Carcassone region, wounding one of them.

SKY News- 23 March 2018- At least two dead, three hurt after gunman took hostages at French supermarket
Hostage-taker, who reportedly pledged allegiance to IS, shot dead after police launch raid
All information suggests it “seems to be a terrorist act” – French PM

French President Emmanuel Macron says he’ll travel back to Paris in coming hours from Brussels to coordinate response to Trèbes hostage situation. He says “everything points to a terrorist attack” and has spoken to Interior Minister who is on his way to Trèbes.

Earlier AFP reported:

AFP- 23 March 2018- At least two people were killed after a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group opened fire and took hostages at a supermarket in southwest France on Friday, security sources told AFP.
A witness reported that the assailant was armed with knives, a gun and grenades and shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) before going into the supermarket.
A source close to the probe said a Moroccan man had been identified as the hostage-taking suspect.
“Most of the Super U staff and customers managed to get away,” said a security source, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak publicly.
“An officer is currently in contact with the hostage-taker.”
The source said two people had been killed according to a provisional toll, while regional police chief Jean-Valery Lettermann told AFP: “We are unfortunately expecting to discover there are more victims.”
Fifteen minutes before the supermarket incident in Trebes, a policeman was shot in the nearby town of Carcassonne while out jogging with several colleagues.
He was in a stable condition, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said.
– France still on high alert –
Police traced the car involved in the shooting in Carcassonne to the hostage-taking in Trebes after it was found in the car park of the supermarket, a security source told AFP.
The shootings come with France still on high alert after a string of jihadist attacks since 2015.
The man “entered the Super U supermarket and shots were heard,” a source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Three helicopters could be seen circling over Trebes, a picturesque medieval town of around 5,000 people, while heavily armed police had closed down roads surrounding the supermarket.
The local prosecutors office were treating the incident as a terror attack and said the gunman had claimed to be acting in the name of IS.

“All the information we currently have leads us to believe it is a terrorist act,” Philippe said while on a visit to Mulhouse in eastern France, cutting short the trip.
A police officer was also in hospital after being shot in a separate incident 15 minutes’ drive away in the town of Carcassonne a quarter of an hour before the hostage-taking began.
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb was on his way to the scene.
The terror attacks in France started in January 2015 with the assault on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.
France also suffered major attacks in Paris in November 2015 when IS jihadists killed 130 people in bombings and shootings at bars, restaurants, the Bataclan concert venue and the national stadium.
In July 2016, in another attack claimed by IS, a man drove a truck through revellers celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera resort of Nice, killing 84 people.
A state of emergency put in place just after the Paris attacks was finally lifted in October last year, but soldiers continue to patrol major tourist sites and transport hubs under an anti-terror mission.
If the link to Islamic State is confirmed, the hostage-taking would be the first deadly attack in France since October, when two young women were stabbed to death outside Marseille’s main train station.
The area of southwest France where Friday’s shootings took place has been scarred by Islamic extremism before.
In 2012, Mohamed Merah shot dead seven people including three Jewish schoolchildren in nearby Toulouse and Montauban.