TREBES, France (AP) – A shaken town in southern France is holding a special church service to honor the heroic police officer and three others killed in a rampage by an Islamic extremist.
The bishop of the nearby medieval city of Carcassonne, Alain Planet, is leading Sunday’s mass at the Saint-Etienne-de-Trebes church in the town of Trebes.
Residents have been laying flowers in front of the Trebes supermarket where the attacker seized hostages Friday.
The director of the national gendarme service is meeting Sunday in Carcassonne with the widow of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, who swapped himself with a hostage and was killed.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also ordered a national memorial for Beltrame.
Attacker Radouane Lakdim was killed when police stormed the building. Two people remain in custody in the investigation.