Elite police have rushed to
the Super U shop, where another person has been seriously wounded, a police
union said.
A gunman is believed to
have killed at least one person during a hostage-taking at a supermarket in
Trèbes, southern France.
Reports say the gunman, who
remains in the supermarket, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Earlier, a policeman was
shot and wounded while jogging with colleagues in Carcassonne, a 15-minute
drive away,
He was shot in the shoulder
by the same suspect involved in the supermarket hostage-taking but is not
critically injured, Yves Lefebvre, secretary-general of the SGP Police-FO union
told the Associated Press.
Trèbes Mayor Eric Menassi
told BFM TV that the gunman was now alone in the shop with one police officer,
after other hostages were freed.
A security source told
French news agency AFP that most employees and customers at the supermarket
"managed to flee".
Prime Minister Édouard
Philippe said the situation was "serious" and that all signs pointed
towards a "terrorist act".
Hundreds of police officers
have been deployed to the area, and the vicinity has been cordoned off.
Counter-terrorism
prosecutors are leading the investigation but few details have been provided.
France has been hit with
several deadly jihadist attacks since 2015 and has been on high alert since. A
state of emergency put in place after attacks in Paris in November 2015 that
killed 130 people was lifted in October.
Major terror attacks in
France
1 Oct 2017 - Two women
stabbed to death at Marseille railway station; attack claimed by IS
26 Jul 2016 - Two attackers
slit a priest's throat at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy.
They are shot dead by police
14 Jul 2016 - A huge lorry
mows down a crowd of people on the Nice beachfront during Bastille Day
celebrations, killing 86. IS claims the attack - by a Tunisian-born driver,
later shot dead by police
13 Jun 2016 - A police
officer and his partner are stabbed to death at home by a jihadist, in
Magnanville, west of Paris. He declares allegiance to IS, and police later kill
him
13 Nov 2015 - IS jihadists
armed with bombs and assault rifles attack Paris, targeting the national
stadium, cafes and Bataclan concert hall. The co-ordinated assault leaves 130
people dead, and more than 350 wounded
7-9 Jan 2015 - Two Islamist
gunmen storm the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 17
people. Another Islamist militant kills a policewoman the next day and takes
hostages at a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Four hostages are killed before
police shoot the gunman dead. The other two gunmen are cornered and killed by
police in a siege.
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