Roundup: Gunman kills three in France's first major terror attack since October

PARIS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) killed three people and injured 16 others in a series of terror attacks in southern France on Friday, before being gunned down by anti-terror police.

It was France's first major terror attack since October of 2017, when the country enacted an anti-terrorism bill which enshrines emergency security rules into ordinary law. It allows police to have more power to search, arrest without judge approval and restrict people movements and gathering.

The gunman, identified as 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim, began his attacks by hijacking a car on Friday morning in the southern French town of Carcassone. He shot one passenger dead and injured the driver. The body of the victim was later found hidden in a bush.

Lakdim then opened fire on police officers while they were jogging in Carcassone, injuring one person. Following that, he drove a few kilometers to Trebes and headed into a Super-U supermarket around 11 a.m. local time (1000 GMT).

He stormed the supermarket, shouting the religious slogan "Allahu Akbar" and telling about 50 people who were inside the supermarket that he was "a soldier of the Islamic State" and was seeking "to liberate brothers".

According to BFMTV news channel, Lakdim asked for the release of Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving suspect of Paris shootings and explosions that left 130 victims in 2015.

The police officers managed to get people out but Lakdim used one woman as a human shield, according to BBC. A 45-year-old police officer asked to replace the hostages, putting his phone on a table with an open line for the convenience of police monitoring the situation.

Then a gunshot was heard and an elite Swat team rushed into the supermarket, killing the gunman. The police officer was badly injured.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed the death. The Moroccan origin gunman was known to police for robbery and drug trafficking but had no sign of radicalization, and he acted alone, according to Collomb.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the shootings and the hostage-taking were "an Islamist terrorist attack". Among the 16 injured, two were in critical condition.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The claim was being checked by French security services, Macron said, after chairing a crisis meeting with ministers and security officials.

"I urge our fellow French citizens to remain aware of the terrorist threat, but also to remember the force and resistance our people have demonstrated each and every time they were attacked," Macron said.

The president also said that anti-terror prosecutors had opened an investigation into the attack to "give answers to a number of important questions: when did he become radicalized? How did he obtain the weapon?"

In another development, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said that French investigators had placed in custody a woman close to Lakdim.

"A person close to him, who shared his life" was taken into custody for criminal association in relation with a terrorist attack, Molins told a press conference in Carcassone, without elaborating.

France has become a major target of frequent terrorist attacks in recent years. One of the bloodiest was in Paris where a series of explosives and shootings left 130 victims dead on Nov. 13, 2015. Enditem