France’s Interior Ministry said Friday at least two people were killed when a gunman, reportedly claiming allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, fired shots in a supermarket during an apparent hostage situation in the southwestern French town of Trebes.
National police said law enforcement authorities had surrounded the suspect at the supermarket and may have taken hostages.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said investigators are treating the situation as a terrorist act.
“All the information we have as I speak led us to think that this would be a terrorist act,” Philippe told reporters.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said counterterrorism authorities had assumed control of the investigation but did not explain why.
Philippe said that one police officer was in stable condition after being shot in the neighboring town of Carcassonne minutes before the apparent hostage situation in Trebes. National police union official Yves Lefebvre said the officer was wounded when the attacker fired shots at police officers who were jogging in Carcassone.
France has been on high alert after being hit with a series of Islamic State extremist attacks since 2015 that have killed more than 200 people. | via Voice of America
