'Hero' officer dies after French supermarket siege.

French policeman Arnaud Beltrame, who took the place of a hostage

during an attack at a supermarket, has died of his injuries.

Mr Beltrame, 45, had swapped himself with the last remaining hostage during the attack in Trebes, south west France, on Friday.

He was shot by Redouane Lakdim, prompting counter-terror officers to storm the supermarket and shoot the Islamist terrorist dead.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced the death on Twitter, saying France would never forget Mr Beltrame's heroism, bravery and sacrifice.

"With a heavy heart, I address the support of the whole country to his family, his family and his companions of the @ Gendarmerie de l'Aude."

Lakdim, 25, killed three people and injured 16, two of them seriously, during the hostage-taking attack.

He had hijacked a car in the nearby city of Carcassonne, gravely wounding the driver and killing the passenger, before driving toward Trebes.

He shot at police officers before hiding in the supermarket, taking several people hostage.

During the resulting standoff with police, Lakdim demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam - the only surviving member of the Islamic State cell that attacked Paris in 2015.

Lakdim killed two people before giving most of the hostages up, keeping one woman as a human shield, who Mr Beltrame traded places with.

Mr Beltrame kept his mobile phone switched on and placed it on a table, which enabled police outside to keep track of what was going on.

President Emmanuel Macron had said of Mr Beltrame's actions: "He saved lives and honoured his colleagues and his country."

Mr Beltrame, who was married, had taken part in an exercise on dealing with a mass shooting in a supermarket as recently as December.

Lakdim, who was born in Morocco, was known to police, but only for "delinquent" crimes, like drug dealing.

He was on a watchlist from 2014, according to France's prosecutor Francois Molins, but was not believed to be preparing any terrorist acts.

One neighbour told Le Parisien newspaper that the Islamist had dropped one of his little sisters off at school on Friday morning.

Another called him "calm" and "nice" and said he "always had a kind word to say".

Mr Collomb said: "We had monitored him and did not think he had been radicalised. He was already under surveillance when he suddenly decided to act."

The investigation will question how Lakdim was able to get a gun, and how and when he became radicalised

Sky News.