A police officer who took the place of a female hostage is “fighting for his life”, Macron said in a televised address following the shootings in Carcassonne and Trebes, hailing the man as a hero.

“Our country has suffered an Islamist terrorist attack,” the president added.

The gunman — a 26-year-old drug dealer monitored as a possible Islamic extremist — carried out three separate shootings, ending his rampage by taking hostages at a supermarket in Trebes.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the gunman, Radouane Lakdim, whom security sources said had Moroccan nationality, had been monitored on suspicion of having been radicalised but had ultimately been deemed not to pose a threat.

France remains on high alert after a wave of jihadist attacks that has claimed more than 240 lives since 2015. DM