France hostage incident

This item appears on page 18 of the May 2018 issue.

On March 23, a heavily armed man hijacked a car in the French town of Carcassonne, killing a passenger and injuring the driver, before shooting and injuring an off-duty policeman. The gunman then drove to the town of Trébes, where he entered a supermarket, killed two people and took others hostage.

During negotiations, the man allowed one hostage to be exchanged with a police officer. Soon after the exchange, the gunman shot the police officer, mortally wounding him, which caused police outside the market to storm the building and kill the gunman.

In the entire series of events, 16 people were wounded and four people were killed by the gunman, who claimed to be a soldier for Daesh (ISIL). French authorities are calling the event an act of terrorism.