What happened?

There were two separate incidents in and around the historic town of Carcassonne, south west France.

The first incident saw a man drive his vehicle at high speed towards a group of four CRS policemen who were jogging in the town of Carcassonne. He had apparently been following the police who were based in Marseille but were on placement in Carcassone.

The man tried to run the police over. He then opened fire, firing five shots and leaving one of the officers injured on the shoulder. The injured man is not believed to be in a critical condition.

The gunman then drove his vehicle 5 km away to the nearby town of Trèbes where he opened fire in the Super U supermarket while shoppers were inside.

Initially it was not known if the two incidents were linked.

Numerous unconfirmed reports based on police sources claim at least two people were killed in the shooting. The mayor of Trebes said one of the victims was the supermarket’s butcher but this has not been confirmed.

Other reports said the two victims were lying motionless in the supermarket but authorities were unable to get in and confirm their deaths.

Around 50 people who had been in the supermarket at the time fled and took cover in a nearby Peugeot garage.

The incident was still ongoing at the time of publication with the latest reports saying the gunman was alone in the supermarket and was in contact with police at the scene.

Was it a terror attack?

Several witnesses reported that the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire in the supermarket. The cry which means “God is great” in Arabic has been uttered by jihadists in previous terror attacks.

French prosecutors then quickly announced that the gunman had claimed allegiance to the Islamist extremist terror group Isis and that they were treating the incident as a terror attack.

Specialist anti-terror prosecutors in Paris took charge of the investigation and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also said: “Everything points to this being an act of terrorism.”

What do we know about the gunman

According to witnesses the gunman said he wanted to “avenge Syria” and demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the surviving member of the jihadists who carried out the November 2015 Paris attacks and remains in French prison awaiting trial.

Witnesses say he was armed with a knife, a pistol and grenades.

The latest reports claim the gunman was a Moroccan national aged around 30-years-old.

He is believed to have been known to French intelligence services after coming on their radar for being radicalized.

How great is the terror threat in France? 

The shootings come with France still on high alert after a string of jihadist attacks since 2015, including an attack on Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket store as well as the attacks on bars an music venues in Paris.

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

If the link to Islamic State is confirmed, the attack would be the first major incident since the election of centrist President Emmanuel Macron in May last year.

A state of emergency put in place just after the Paris attacks was finally lifted in October last year, but soldiers continue to patrol major tourist sites and transport hubs under an anti-terror mission.

The last incident in France treated a terror attack occurred in Marseille last October when two students were stabbed to death at the train station. The attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” and he was later claimed by Isis as “one of their soldiers”.

French authorities regularly give up dates on the number of thwarted attacks.

Authorities said they had foiled 20 attempted attacks last year and two more in 2018.

“Twenty attempts were foiled in France in 2017. We have to be vigilant everywhere,” Collomb told Le Progres newspaper in January.

“Today no part of the territory is free of risk,” he said.

Source:Thelocal.fr