French gendarme fighting for his life after trading places with hostage

[rooster59]

French gendarme fighting for his life after trading places with hostage

By Johanna Decorse

 

Police officers and investigators at a supermarket after a hostage situation in Trebes, France, March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier

 

TREBES, France (Reuters) - French officials hailed the bravery of a gendarme who was severely wounded after swapping himself for a hostage held by a gunman during a deadly siege of a supermarket.

 

"He saved lives. He is fighting for his life," President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation.

 

Prosecutor Francois Molins said the gunman had opened fire on the gendarme, critically wounding him. The sound of that shooting prompted commando units to storm the building, when they killed the gunman.

 

The gunman had killed one person while stealing a car in the medieval city of Carcassonne before seizing the supermarket in the nearby town of Trebes, where he killed two others.

 

Speaking to reporters at the scene, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said: "I want to hail the courage of the lieutenant-colonel who took the hostage's place and who is now seriously wounded."

 

While inside the supermarket, the gendarme had placed his mobile phone, with an open line, on a table near himself and the assailant, Collomb said. "That way we were able to hear what was going on at a given moment."

 

The officer's name and his personal details were not officially disclosed but France Info radio and BFM TV were among several media to identify him as Arnaud Beltrame.

 

In an interview in December with the local Independent newspaper, Beltrame said he had taken part in an attack simulation in Carcassonne that centred around a mass attack in a supermarket.

 

"A mass killing took place in a supermarket. This is the only information that was given to the police," he was quoted by the newspaper as saying, describing the simulation scenario. "We want to be closer to real conditions, so there is no pre-established scenario".

 

Witnesses interviewed by Reuters said they hid inside a cold storage room when the attacker, wielding a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other, scurried through the aisles of the large Super U store.

 

Most escaped a while later through an emergency exit.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-24

[Somtamnication]

A real hero.

[nausea]

Agreed; what heroism, storybook stuff.

[YetAnother]

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

He is fighting for his life,

hope he makes it

[HLover]

Surrender monkeys can no longer be used to describe the French if this type of bravado perpetuates.

[FreddieRoyle]

6 hours ago, YetAnother said:

hope he makes it

sadly he is dead. 

 

http://www.france24.com/en/20180324-france-attack-hero-gendarme-swapped-hostage-dies

 

Now this is absolutely inexcusable. The French authorities let this known islamist run around doing his evil deeds even though he was perfectly known to them. He mentioned that Saleh Abdeslam was his hero, how predictable - polls show a shocking level of support among young muslims for this beast. The time has come to decide on a risk/reward basis whether these islamists running around are really worth having? 

 

Start by harshly dealing with the authority figures that let the monster run around, and we can continue from there. This is far from a blameless death.

[simple1]

5 hours ago, HLover said:

Surrender monkeys can no longer be used to describe the French if this type of bravado perpetuates.

Unfair comment. French security forces have been aggressively fighting Islamists for quite some time. Sadly some killed in combat in Africa, M.E. & Afghanistan

[Somtamnication]

This is what happens when political correctness runs a muck. Britain is the same way.  

[Basil B]

What this guy did was outstanding...

 

I would like to think that Britain and other countries are able to send a contingency of police offices to form a guard of honour for him as an international recognition of his self-sacrifice. 

[rooster59]

French gendarme who took place of hostage dies of gunshot wounds

By Brian Love and Emmanuel Jarry

 

A photo released by the French Gendarmerie shows Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, the gendarme who voluntarily took the place of a hostage during a deadly supermarket siege in southwestern France on Friday, March 23, 2018. Beltrame has died, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced on Saturday, March 24. Gendarmerie Nationale/Handout via REUTERS

 

PARIS (Reuters) - France was in mourning on Saturday for a French security officer who died from gunshot wounds after voluntarily taking the place of a female hostage during a supermarket siege by an Islamist militant.

 

Arnaud Beltrame, 44, a gendarme who once served in Iraq, had been raced to hospital fighting for his life after being shot by the gunman during the siege at the Super U store in the southwestern town of Trebes near the Pyrenees mountains.

 

"He fell as a hero, giving up his life to halt the murderous outfit of a jihadist terrorist," President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement shortly before dawn on Saturday.

 

Friday's attacker was identified by authorities as Redouane Lakdim, a 25-year-old Moroccan-born French national from the city of Carcassonne, not far from Trebes, a tranquil town of about 5,000 people where he struck on Friday afternoon.

 

Lakdim was known to authorities for drug-dealing and other petty crimes, but had also been under surveillance by security services in 2016-2017 for links to the radical Salafist movement, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said on Friday.

 

The attacker, whose rampage began when he fired on a group of police joggers and also shot the occupants of a car he stole, killed three people and injured 16 others on Friday, according to a government readout. [nL8N1R52VE]

 

Beltrame's death takes the number killed to four.

 

He was part of a team of gendarmes who were among the first to arrive at the supermarket scene; most of the people in the supermarket escaped after hiding in a cold storage room and then fleeing through an emergency exit.

 

He offered to trade places with a hostage the attacker was still holding, whereafter he took her place and left his mobile phone on a table, line open. When shots rang out, elite police stormed the building to kill the assailant. Police sources said Beltrame was shot three times.

 

ARRESTS

 

Police arrested two people after the attack, one of them a woman connected to Lakdim, on Friday and a 17-year-old man said to be one of his friends overnight, judicial sources said. [nP6N1HV02I] [nL8N1R6069]

 

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. Macron said security services were checking that claim.

 

More than 240 people have been killed in France in attacks since 2015 by assailants who either pledged allegiance to Islamic State or were inspired by the ultra hardline group.

 

France is part of a group of countries whose warplanes have been bombing Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria, where in recent months IS has lost much of a self-proclaimed "caliphate" of territory it seized in 2014.

 

One multiple attack by Islamist gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015 while another killed close to 90 when a man ran a truck into partying crowds in the Riviera seaside city of Nice in July 2016.

 

Beltrame, who is survived by his wife, was a qualified parachutist who served in Iraq in 2005. He also worked as part of the elite Republican Guard that protects the presidential Elysee Place offices and residence in Paris, Macron said.

 

Friday's assault was the first deadly Islamist attack in France since October 2017, when a man stabbed two young women to death in the port city of Marseille before soldiers killed him.

 

Several attacks over the past year or more have targeted police and soldiers deployed in big numbers to protect civilians and patrol sensitive spots such as airports and train stations.

 

Macron said of Beltrame: "In offering himself as a hostage to the terrorist holed up in the Trebes supermarket, lieutenant colonel Beltrame saved the life of a civilian hostage, showing exceptional self-sacrifice and courage."

 

The news of Beltrame's death was first announced France's interior minister, who said in a Twitter post: "Dead for his country. France will never forget his heroism, bravery and sacrifice."

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-24

 

[Grouse]

Un homme courageux

?? ?

[Opl]

It"s ashock and it"s a pain to realise how easily lives can be taken and destroyed by someone you have nothing to share with.

How long did it take to make of Arnaud Beltrame the kind of person her was? All our thoughts to his family and beloved ones.

The killet's family members should leave France - if they have some sense of decency - take responsibility, share the shame, face the conséquences.

I feel so angry.    

Edited March 24, 2018 by Opl

[Khun Han]

RIP M. Beltrame. Your brother's poignant words say what all decent folk think:

 

"He did what needed to be done and thanks to him, many lives were saved and yes, I think the word hero is very appropriate."

[InMyShadow]

He is one in a million. But it was suicide he must have known that. What about his family?

Ask them what they would prefer, a dead hero or for him to arrived home safe.

Sad ending

[Kiwiken]

RIP a Brave man selflessly offered his life for others

[colinneil]

A true hero, a policeman who died doing his duty, this man went beyond his duty.

To serve and protect, well he did, and sadly lost his life doing his duty.

Respect sir, you will be remembered for your selfless act.

My deepest condolences to his family, you should be very proud of what he did.

[Lokie]

Real Man, True Hero! R I P

[gamesgplayemail]

Luckily they don't select the smartest to work with an uniform, or he would have just escaped and saved his life :-)

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.   The topic is not about the USA.