Hero French cop dies

A French policeman who offered himself as a hostage to help end what President Emmanuel Macron branded an "Islamist terrorist attack" died of his wounds yesterday, becoming the fourth victim of the shooting spree and supermarket siege.

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was among a group of officers who rushed to the scene in the town of Trebes in southwest France on Friday after the attacker, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, stormed a supermarket and fired at shoppers and staff.

Beltrame offered to take the place of a woman who was being held as the attacker's final hostage, according to Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.

The officer was shot and stabbed before anti-terror police moved in to kill the attacker and end the siege.

Macron led tributes to Beltrame, saying he had "died a hero" and deserved "the respect and admiration of the whole nation".

The national gendarmerie said its flags would fly at half-mast in tribute to the slain officer, while a white rose hung on the door of his own base in Carcassonne.

With the death of the officer, the assailant, identified as 25-year-old Radouane Lakdim, killed a total of four people in Trebes and the nearby medieval town of Carcassonne, in France's first major jihadist attack since October.

The Islamic State group claimed the attack was in response to its call to target Western enemies -- as is customary when the assailant has pledged allegiance to the jihadists.

The shootings come as France remains on high alert following a string of deadly attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.

Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, had been monitored as a potential extremist, which will raise difficult questions for Macron's government as to how he slipped through the net.