A police officer who offered to trade places with a hostage during a standoff at a supermarket in southern France died Saturday morning, CNN reported.
Lt.-Col. Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was shot by 26-year-old Redouane Lakdim as he entered the Super U market in Trèbes on Friday.
Beltrame "fell as a hero" and showed "exceptional courage", French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Ladkim killed two people and wounded 16 others, two seriously, when he entered the supermarket, the BBC reported. Before that, Ladkim killed another person while stealing a car
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced Beltrame’s death Saturday, which raises the number of people killed to four.
"France will never forget his heroism, his bravery, his sacrifice," Collomb tweeted.
When Beltrame went inside the supermarket, he left his phone on so police could hear his interactions with the gunman, Collomb told CNN.
As soon as they heard gunfire, police went in and killed the gunman.
Lakdim allegedly demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the most important surviving suspect in the November 2015 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people, the BBC reported.
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