French officer who took female hostage's place dies hours after wedding

his rampage by firing on a group of police joggers.

He then opened fire on two passengers in a car, killing one and wounding the other, before driving off in the vehicle.

Lakdim then made his way to the Super U store where he shot dead two people.

The attacker took one female hostage to use as a human shield.

It was then that Beltrame stepped in to offer himself to the gunman.

He remained Lakdim's hostage while tense negotiations ensued.

Beltrame cleverly left his mobile phone on the table so police surrounding the building in the sleepy town of 5,000 inhabitants could listen in.

Through that phone, officers heard gunshots ring out inside the building.

Elite police stormed the building and gunned down the assailant, putting an end to the violence.

Police arrested two people after the attack: a woman connected to Lakdim and a 17-year-old man said to be one of his friends.

Collomb praised Beltrame for his 'courage' and 'act of heroism'.

He said Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, had been monitored on suspicion of having been radicalised but had been deemed not to pose a threat.

The killer was known to authorities for drug-dealing and other petty crimes.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said he had been on an extremist watch-list due to his links with the radical Salafist movement, an offshoot of Sunni Islam.

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