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French supermarket attack: Hero cop dies of wounds

A French police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege in Trebes has died, a minister…

French supermarket attack: Hero cop dies of wounds

This handout picture taken in Carcassone military headquarters in 2018 and released by the Gendarmerie Nationale on March 24, 2018 shows French Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame who was killed after swapping himself for a hostage in the town of Trebes, southwestern France on March 23. (Photo: AFP PHOTO / GENDARMERIE NATIONALE / HO)

A French police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege in Trebes has died, a minister said on Saturday.

Announcing the Lt Col Arnaud Beltrame’s death on Twitter, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said: “He died for his country. France will never forget his heroism, his bravery, his sacrifice.”

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The gendarme helped bring an end to a gunman’s shooting spree on Friday that killed three in southern France.

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The radical Islamist gunman, Redouane Lakdim, 25, was shot dead.

Beltrame had been hailed as a hero by French President Emmanuel Macron.

On Friday night, Macron had revealed that Beltrame had suffered serious injuries and was fighting for his life in hospital.

Sixteen people were injured, two seriously, in what the President called an act of “Islamist terrorism”, the BBC reported.

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.

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