Gunman in French hostage-taking killed by police

A suspected IS gunman behind a hostage-taking and shooting spree in southwest France on Friday has been killed by police.

At least two people are believed to have been shot dead in the hostage-taking in the small town of Trebes, with a security source identifying the gunman as 26-year-old Redouane Lakdim, a Moroccan man who had been flagged as a potential extremist.

Two people were also injured in the incident, which was treated as a terror attack. Reports also said a policeman was among the hostages held.

The Trebes incident has been linked to an earlier shooting in nearby town of Carcassonne, in which a third person died.

The man first hijacked a car there in the morning, killing a passenger and injuring the driver, sources told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He then shot at a group of policemen nearby, leaving one of the officers injured, before driving to nearby Trebes.

Trebes is in southwest France [click to enlarge]

In Trebes, the man "entered the Super U supermarket at around 11.15 am and shots were heard," a source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A witness reported he shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) before going into the premises, the source added.

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.