Flags were flown at half-mast in gendarme stations across France as the country honoured the officer declared a national hero by President Emmanuel Macron after he swapped himself for a hostage and was killed by an Islamist gunman.
“Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much,” Mr Macron said. “In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero.”
The 45-year-old Lieutenant Colonel in the gendarmerie died in hospital overnight from gun wounds after he offered himself in exchange for a hostage held by an attacker holed up in a supermarket in the southwestern town of Trèbes on Friday.
