Redouane Lakdim

Lakdim was born in Morocco on 11 April 1992 and became a naturalized citizen of France in 2004 when his father acquired French citizenship.

In 2011 had been given a suspended prison sentence for possession of illegal weapons and in 2016 had served a month in prison for a drug offence and refusing to stop for a traffic control.

He had been monitored by the French authorities as a potential security risk (Fiche S) since 2014 but there had been no indication that he was about to commit an attack.

His girlfriend, who was a convert to Islam, was also known to French security services.

During the three-hour stand-off, Lakdim swore allegiance to the Islamic State and demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving suspect of the November 2015 Paris attacks.

After Lakdim shot and fatally stabbed Beltrame, a GIGN tactical unit carried out an assault, during which the terrorist was shot and killed.

Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Beltrame was hailed as a hero and given a state funeral.

In January 2024, six men and a woman went on trial in Paris in connection with the attack.

The January 2015 Île-de-France attacks and November 2015 Paris attacks killed a total of 157 people, almost all of them civilians.

He also demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the November 2015 Paris attacks

Police and gendarmes soon arrived in force, cordoned off the area and helped to evacuate people from the supermarket.

At about 11:30 a.m. a lieutenant colonel of the gendarmerie, Arnaud Beltrame, persuaded Lakdim to let him change places with the hostage.

A GIGN unit assembled outside the supermarket and interior minister Gérard Collomb arrived on the scene.

Police brought Lakdim's mother and two of his sisters to aid in negotiations with Lakdim.

At about 2:30 p.m., the GIGN negotiator opened a conversation with Beltrame and Lakdim on the phone.

Beltrame then attempted to disarm Lakdim, calling out "Assault! Assault!"

to the negotiator, who did not distinguish the words and delayed the assault for some minutes while trying to re-establish contact with Beltrame.

It was only when shots were heard that the GIGN unit stormed the storeroom and exchanged gunfire with Lakdim.

During the exchange, Lakdim was killed and a gendarme was injured.

In 2017 the majority of attacks were directed at police and soldiers, rather than civilians.

On 23 March 2018, an Islamic terrorist carried out three attacks in the town of Carcassonne and nearby village of Trèbes in the Aude department in southwestern France, killing three people and injuring fifteen.

Redouane Lakdim, a 25-year-old French Moroccan, first shot two men at the Aigles de la cité car park overlooking Carcassonne, killing one of them and seriously injuring the other.

He then stole the car of the injured victim and drove into Carcassonne, where he opened fire on four police officers who were out jogging, seriously injuring one.

He next drove to nearby Trèbes, where he attacked a Super U supermarket, killing an employee and a customer, and taking a female employee hostage.

A senior gendarmerie officer, Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, exchanged places with the hostage.

By March 2018, more than 240 people had been killed in Islamist terrorist attacks in France since the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015, and about 20,000 people were on a watchlist of possible extremists.

By 2018, France was the European nation most affected by terrorist attacks inspired or directed by IS.

By 2018, he was living in Ozanam, a housing estate in Carcassonne, with his parents and sisters.

He was known to the police in Carcassone as a petty criminal and small-time drug dealer.

On 23 March 2018, Lakdim armed himself with a handgun and a hunting knife before taking his younger sister to school and making his way to the Aigles de la cité car park overlooking Carcassonne.

The area was a meeting place for gay men and Lakdim's first attack was motivated by homophobia.

Arriving there at about 10:15 a.m., Lakdim first shot Renato Silva, a Portuguese citizen who was smoking a cigarette a little way from his car and then shot and killed Jean Mazières, a retired wine grower, who was approaching them.

He then drove off in Silva's Opel Corsa into Carcassonne where he opened fire on four policemen of the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité who were out jogging and just returning to their barracks on avenue général Leclerc.

One officer was seriously wounded.

Lakdim next drove 8 km to Trèbes.

Lakdim arrived at the Super U supermarket in Trèbes at about 10:40 a.m. Immediately upon entering the supermarket, he killed an employee, butcher Christian Medvès, and a customer, Hervé Sosna, a retired mason, shooting both men in the head at point blank range.

As customers and staff fled, hid or lay on the ground, Lakdim threw a home-made grenade into the aisles; it did not explode.

He then took a female employee, who was hiding in a storeroom behind the welcome desk, hostage and told her to phone the local police station.

Lakdim told the police operator that he was a member of IS and wanted to take revenge on the French for bombing Syria and Iraq.