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TEHRAN, March 24 - A gunman killed three people in southwestern France on Friday as he held up a car, fired on police and seized hostages in a supermarket.
TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The attack came before security forces stormed the building and killed him, authorities said.
Sixteen other people were wounded, including two who were seriously hurt.
Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron said security services were checking that claim.
“I want to tell the nation tonight of my absolute determination in leading this fight,” said Macron, who returned to Paris from Brussels to chair a crisis meeting with ministers and security officials, Reuters quoted him as saying.
More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks since 2015 by assailants who pledged allegiance to Daesh or were inspired by the group.
Friday’s attacker was identified by authorities as Redouane Lakdim, 25, from the city of Carcassonne.
Two people were killed when he attacked the supermarket in the nearby small town of Trebes.
Witnesses said about 20 people in the supermarket found refuge in its cold storage room.
A lieutenant-colonel of the gendarmes who swapped himself in exchange for one of the hostages was fighting for his life in hospital, Macron said, Reuters reported.
Moroccan-born Lakdim was known to authorities for petty crimes, but had been under surveillance by security services in 2016-2017 for links to the radical Salafist movement, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, who is leading the investigation.
“The monitoring ... did not reveal any apparent signs that could lead (us) to foresee he would act,” Molins said.
He said one woman connected to Lakdim had been arrested.
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