In March 23, in the scenic medieval city of Carcassonne in the south of France, Redouane Lakdim hijacked a car, killing the passenger and wounding the driver. He drove to a police barracks, where he unsuccessfully attempted to run over four officers returning from a jog. He then opened fire, seriously wounding one. Less than an hour later, he entered a supermarket in the neighboring village of Trebes armed with a hunting knife, a handgun, and three homemade bombs. After killing one customer and the supermarket's butcher and sending dozens of other customers and employees fleeing for the exits, he took everyone who remained hostage. One employee, a cashier named Julie, was taken as a human shield.
Police quickly established a cordon around the supermarket and began evacuations. The French Interior Minister was soon on the scene. Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French citizen, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and threatened to blow up the supermarket if two conditions were not met. He demanded that the French state stop bombing Syria and that police release Salah Abdeslam, the last living suspect of the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. A few hours later, police stormed the supermarket, killing Lakdim and freeing the remaining hostages. It was the first terrorist attack in France this year.
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