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| French police 'hero' dies of wounds | French police 'hero' dies of wounds |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A French police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege on Friday has died, officials say. | A French police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege on Friday has died, officials say. |
| Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, 45, had been hailed as a hero by French President Emmanuel Macron. | |
| The gendarme helped bring an end to a gunman's shooting spree that killed three in southern France. | The gendarme helped bring an end to a gunman's shooting spree that killed three in southern France. |
| The radical Islamist gunman, 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim, was shot dead as police brought the siege to an end. | The radical Islamist gunman, 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim, was shot dead as police brought the siege to an end. |
| Announcing the police officer's death on Twitter, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said: "He died for his country. France will never forget his heroism, his bravery, his sacrifice." | |
| Earlier, Mr Macron had revealed that Lt-Col Beltrame had suffered serious injuries and was fighting for his life in hospital. | |
| Sixteen people were injured, two seriously, in what Mr Macron called an act of "Islamist terrorism". | |
| Lakdim was said to have demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the most important surviving suspect in the 13 November 2015 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people. | |
| One person - believed to be Lakdim's partner - has been arrested in connection with the shootings. | |
| What led up to Friday's siege? | |
| The violence began on Friday morning in Carcassonne, where Lakdim hijacked a car. He killed a passenger - whose body was later found hidden in a bush - and injured the driver. | |
| He then shot at a group of policemen who were out jogging, wounding one of them. | |
| Lakdim is then believed to have driven a short distance to the small town of Trèbes, where he stormed into the Super-U supermarket, shouting, "I am a soldier of Daesh [Islamic State]!" | |
| He killed two people - a customer and a store worker - before seizing others as hostages. | |
| At what point was the officer injured? | |
| Mr Collomb told reporters on Friday that police officers had managed to get some people out of the supermarket but the gunman had held one woman back as a human shield. | |
| It was at this point, he said, that Lt-Col Beltrame had volunteered to swap himself for her. | |
| As he did so, he left his mobile phone on a table with an open line so that police outside could monitor the situation. | |
| When police heard gunshots, a tactical team stormed the supermarket. The gunman was killed but Lt-Col Beltrame was injured. |