France hostage crisis: Three persons killed in suspected Islamic State attack; PM Edouard Philippe says it is 'terror attack'

No less than three persons were killed Friday in a shooting binge and hostage attack in southern France by a man asserting faithfulness to the Islamic State gathering, security sources told AFP.

                                                File image of the super U Super Market

A security source said the three were killed in the attack at a Super U store in the town of Trebes.

Outfitted police were additionally reacting to the prior shooting of a policeman in the town of Carcassonne, 15 minutes head out, which occurred at around 11 am (1000 GMT). 


It was hazy if the two incidents were connected.

In Trebes, a pleasant medieval town of around 5,000 people, the man "entered the Super U store at around 11.15 am and shots were heard," a source told AFP on state of anonymity.

According to an eye witness  account  he (the gunman) shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) before going into the premises, the source added.

The gunman claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, the local prosecutor's office said, and the incident was being treated as a terror attack.

Local authorities tweeted that the area around the supermarket was off-limits to the public, while Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said it was a "serious" incident.

The shootings come with France still on high alert after a string of jihadist attacks since 2015, starting in January that year with the assault on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

France also suffered major attacks in Paris in November 2015 when Islamic State jihadists killed 130 people in bombings and shootings at bars, restaurants, the Bataclan concert venue and the national stadium.

In July 2016, in another attack claimed by Islamic State, a man drove a truck through revellers celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera resort of Nice, killing 84 people.

On the off chance that the connection to Islamic State is affirmed, the prisoner taking would be the principal lethal assault in France since October, when two young ladies were cut to death outside Marseille's fundamental prepare station.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb was heading to the scene, he wrote on Twitter.

The area of southwest France where today's shootings took place has been scarred by Islamic extremism before.

In 2012, Mohamed Merah shot dead seven people including three Jewish schoolchildren in the nearby city of Toulouse.