PARIS (AP) — French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says all information suggests that the shooting inside a supermarket in southern France and the earlier shooting of a police officer “seems to be a terrorist act”.
Philippe says the hostage situation is ongoing Friday inside the Super-U supermarket in the small town of Trebes. A police official earlier said that one person had been shot dead and another seriously wounded inside the supermarket.
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12:50 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron has aked Interior Minister Gerard Collomb to go to the site of a shooting and hostage-taking in southern France.
The incident is continuing inside a supermarket in the small town of Trebes. A police union official said the suspect has shot one person dead and a second is in life-threatening condition.
Earlier the suspect shot and wounded a police officer nearby.
Anti-terror prosecutors have taken over the investigation.
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12:35 p.m.
A police union official says a suspect has shot dead one person and seriously wounded another inside a supermarket in the southern French town of Trebes.
Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of the SGP Police-FO union, says the suspect earlier fired six shots at police officers who were on their way back from jogging near the city of Carcassonne Friday morning. One police officer was injured in the shoulder but is not in life-threatening condition, Lefebvre said
The police officers, based in the southern city of Marseille, were on a temporary mission in Carcassonne, he said.
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12:20 p.m.
French counterterrorism prosecutors are taking charge of the investigation into the shooting of a police officer in southern France that has led to an apparent hostage-taking at a supermarket.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said counterterrorism investigators are taking over the probe into the ongoing incident Friday in the town of Trebes, but did not provide details on why.
There are unconfirmed media reports that the assailant claimed connections to the Islamic State group.
Interior Minister spokesman Frederic Delanouvelle told The Associated Press that there is one suspect and police are trying to subdue him. He provided no details of how many people were inside the supermarket or were believed held hostage.
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12:05 p.m.
French authorities say a police operation is taking place in a small town in southern France after a police officer was shot and wounded.
A suspect has been surrounded at a supermarket in the town of Trebes, south of Toulouse, and might have taken hostages, national police said.
The French Interior Ministry said on its Twitter account Friday that police and rescue operations are the priority.
Authorities in the Aude region are warning people to avoid the area around the supermarket.
