about it bill has charge of crimes committed against civilians we've moved out of syria will go six hundred thousand pages of material so that one day they can bring the outside regime to justice that puts a human face on the charges it's a dead human face but it's a human face syria witnesses for the prosecution at this time on al-jazeera. coming. up. right. a man claiming allegiance to eisele this taken people hostage at a supermarket in southern france.

well i'm a very upset again this is al jazeera live from joe also coming up another foreign policy shakeup at the white house the new national security advisor john bolton was previously back to tax on iran and north korea. british diplomats are on their way out of russia the latest move in the spy poisoning with britain. shares fall on fears of a trade war as beijing retaliates against donald trump's moves to introduce tariffs on chinese imports. we begin with breaking news out of france a man claiming allegiance to i saw has taken people hostage in the south of france it happened in the supermarket in the town of crabbe the town's mayor told french media that two people have been shot there are reports that a policeman was hurt by the same man in an instant live out of paris as he was

pulled brennan is looking watching at watching over developments in southern france paul what more do we know. yeah news slowly coming out it appears that the french authorities now very firmly treating this as what they describe as an act of terrorism and let me talk you through some of the developing details as we know them so far it seems that this morning in the in a place called caucus on four members of the french riot police squad were out jogging it's not clear whether they were doing it in the spare time or were there it was part of some kind of training exercise they were encountered by a man in a car this is what witnesses are telling and the man then talked to them threaten them claim to be a soldier of daschle and shot at these four. riot police riot squad officers wounding one of them in the shoulder the man then departed the scene in

that vehicle and the next we have is a what we believe are connected incidents of short distance away in a place called treb that's about eight kilometers six miles away it's a direct road between the two places and a man went into a super super market that have been shots fired it looks like at least two people have been wounded witnesses there are talking about two people lying motionless on the ground wounded not clear whether they're actually still alive at this point there are fears that at least one people one person has been killed and there is an ongoing police operation at that supermarkets where it appears that the man is still inside and may have a number of hostages we don't know how many people were inside that super super market at that time down in trap it's down in the southwest of france is near the pyrenees nearest airport i suppose would be to lose if that's if that helps people

at the viewers worldwide get the geography of france but it's an ongoing situation and what the authorities are saying is that so far the situation is nonstop billie's day which basically means it's it's not fully under control yet all right so the french prime minister says the incident appears to be an act of terrorism what is what is the government doing here. yeah the governments are in a fast fluid motion at the moment the prime minister phillipe was over in eastern france he has given a brief statement to the media there who were following him he said it was almost certainly an act of terrorism apart based upon the details that he knows so far and he's heading back here to paris so that he can be kept abreast from here in the capital in the meantime the interior minister who has direct responsibility for the police and the security services is moving from is going down from paris down to thread to the scene he's on route there at the moment so she's on

a moments and will make a statement from there later in the day so the prime minister is also going to keep the president informed as well and what about these reports paul that this man has claimed allegiance to eisele. yeah i mean of course we have to be careful about those details but that's certainly the information that's coming through from witnesses the riot squad police have obviously been able to speak they've been speaking to local media they corroborate this claim that the man at least claimed to be a soldier a dash before he fired the shots at those four police officers and of course we also have the prime minister saying that on the basis of the fact that he knows so far this is an act of terrorism that's the prime minister saying this so whether or not the person involved in this actually does have direct links to i still isn't clear that will emerge later certainly though it appears he's claiming to have

links to eisele at this early stage and that's the way the authorities are proceeding for the moment and one final question paul what remote is a good use of this place was there that the pyrenees what sort of places. it's a small town i mean the area south of france it's has tourist areas it's very picturesque caca saunas a lovely little town as well in the two two towns are very very short distance to each other as i say just eight kilometers the area where the supermarket is is one of those kind of out of town concrete areas there's a cow for nearby it's one of those areas where you have these kind of supermarkets and out of town outlets tend to congregate on a just off the just off the main road that normally passes or bypasses the town so it's not in this this incident is not taking place in the center of tribe it's kind of on the southern edge of tribe but nevertheless it's a serious incident and it's going to cause

a huge amount of anxiety down there until the police understand just exactly how whether it is just one person involved or whether this you know this is a more serious wider issue or a pull we'll let you were well if you get back to work the following developments out of perhaps we'll speak to you a little later in this post and we're looking at live pictures on the screen of the situation now. where. that gunman is reported to be holding at least one hostage in that supermarket on the outskirts of the town reports of at least two people being shot we don't know what their condition is the reports that have been deaths we can't confirm those we can't corroborate the details just yet we're working on that here at al-jazeera but pool reporting that media reports speak of at least two people lying prone on the floor on the gunman. apparently being in the supermarket with at least one person

thought to be a policeman all of the hostages reported to have been freed more details on the situation in tab throughout this bulletin on al jazeera and over the the cause. stay with us we'll bring you more developments if and when we get them while we're on the air in the meantime let's move on to the rest of the day's news there's been a major shift in the foreign policy agenda of the white house donald trump has introduced his new point man on national security matters while saying goodbye to the man that he's going to replace us but the us president tweeted i'm pleased to announce that effective ninth of april john bolton will be my new national security adviser i'm very thankful for the service of general h.r. mcmaster who's done an outstanding job and will always remain my friend will the new united states national security adviser is making his return to politics then next month john bolton bringing with him the last experience but also

a lot of criticism that's actually going to aim as more on donald trump's controversial pick. john bolton has worked for three republican presidents and caused controversy even among members of his own party now he joins a trumpet ministration apparently in turmoil analysts say bolton is a hard liner and donald trump is sending a very clear message by choosing him instead of a more moderate voice mr bolton didn't see a war that he didn't like you know when he was at the united nations as an acting ambassador there because he couldn't get confirmed by the senate he said you know diplomacy is useless it can might as well float out into the sea and sink i think what we can see is an escalation of tensions bolton has a history of imposing american military might he advocated the invasion of iraq in two thousand and three while embassador to the u.n. he took

a hard line against north korea and iran by pushing for sanctions in two thousand and seven the united states has followed a policy for over four years centrally deferring to european efforts to negotiate with iran i think it's clear that that policy has failed the season politicians returned to the front line of foreign policy gives him an opportunity to shape the president's views on north korea and iran at a critical moment trump has spoken of wanting to rip up the iranian nuclear accord and he's due for a much anticipated meeting with north korean leader kim jong un in may the talks with north korea go poorly trump will walk out and say you know that didn't really get us anything and done john bolton to say look i told you we should strike north korea john bones but on the record he said twice in the last six months the u.s. should attack north korea even within trump's inner circle there's disagreement about whether bolton is the right man for the national security job is ideology is

thought to be aligned with his boss and he's already tried to ease fears that he pushed the united states into another conflict saying he. be one voice among many who are advising the president and there should be a free exchange of ideas as an ever growing number of trumps right hand men and women have learned bolton's biggest challenge may be keeping the continued faith of president trump and his job natasha going eight. or i'm going to go back to that developing situation in the south of france where a man claiming allegiance to i saw has taken people hostage at a supermarket in the town of. the town's mayor has told french media that two people have been shot and there are reports that a policeman was hurt by the same man in an incident before the hostage taking at the supermarket is paul brennan is following developments for us from paris and is with us once again. live now paul the prime minister has had something to do about

that to say about this incident paul yeah as i said a little earlier we've now been able to process the the clip of what felipe the french prime minister he was over in eastern france when the news broke about this shooting and the ongoing believe hostage incident down in type he's coming back here to paris but before he departed from eastern france he spoke to the media and gave some brief details they are only brief details about the nature of the situation that's ongoing down there. the. opportunities of a ten thirty am. unarmed man went towards a four security officers one of them was going to tickle his condition has not been established then at. sun hostages have been taken police were quickly deployed to the scene of the operation is still going to go the anti terror unit of the paris

prosecutor's office has been engaged to open an investigation all the information we have at the moment leads us to believe that this is an act of terrorism all right paul so that was the prime minister speaking a short time ago the situation is still ongoing at this supermarket tell us what we know so far about how the situation developed. yeah i mean to recap it appears that nick aka saunas the prime minister was just saying that a small squad of officers from the c. s. they are the the french riot police appear to have been out running on some other a training exercise or some kind of off duty keeping fits kind of thing where they were approached by a man in a vehicle who engaged them in the shouted out the morkel started conversing with them and then started threatening them and claimed to be a soldier a dash is what the early reports from s.

a saying he then produced a gun and shot at these four running officers jogging officers wounding one of them in the shoulder and then departed in the vehicle the next we have is what's believed to be the same man eight kilometers away in the nearby village of travel just south of the main conurbation of trip to an area where there was a grouping of supermarkets there and in one particular supermarket soup it appears that man is gone that has shot at least two people. potentially fatally and then going into the supermarket where we understand he's now surrounded by police it's not clear whether the how many people are inside the supermarkets you had the prime minister there talking about a hostage situation details still very sketchy but the police are treating this very seriously and we do i think we're going to be hearing from president to mccrone who's going to make a statement shortly in the meantime that the government has put into place measures

. that the interior minister has been has been sent to that rightful. that's right the interior minister who was the prime minister was out in eastern france is returning to paris to take control and to brief the president about the ongoing situation and keep president up to speed the interior minister meanwhile is moving from paris is all routes down to tribe to take direct control of the situation down there and see the situation with their own eyes the counter terrorism investigators the profit to terrorism prosecutor has been tasked with leading the conversation or leading the investigation into all of this so you can see that that's where they're investigating processor is heading yes the as i say the situation in the french is described as nonstop which basically means not totally under control yet it's an ongoing situation it's still fluid and the claim

by this government to be operating. with the blessing of dash or directly controlled by dash is certainly elevating this to an extremely serious level and where at what stage did that information come to light paul led to this claim that he is acting on behalf of vice. yeah the c.r.s. officers who were shot at of course only one of them was actually routed so very quickly local media were able to get on the scene and speak to people from the c.r.s. and so the initial reports about the claim of dash affiliation at least came from the caucus on air from that initial shooting then there was a claim by i still of one of their soldiers was involved in an incident in southwest france so it appears to have come from from two prongs what's not clear though is whether those are genuine affiliations genuine claims or whether it's just i still affiliates jumping on the bandwagon it's been

a long history here in france of i still inspired lone wolf force disillusioned individuals attacking police officers attacking other targets static targets they're not always proved to have any direct link with ice silver so i think we have to be very careful about the exact nature of the connection if any between this particular individual and i still nevertheless the claim of i still filiation of i still activation is certainly something that the authorities the security services are looking very seriously at in this it certainly treating as fact at the moment or paul we'll let you get back to work to we're gathering the information monitoring developments there will be back with you again. shortly this is the situation then live from. in southwestern france where that shooting and hostage taking seems to be

a terrorist act according to word france prime minister at what phillipe speaking a short time ago we'll take a break get the latest weather back with the day's top stories in just a moment. a key figure of the early twentieth century arab literary scene. and a feminist writer. had ever had time. so why did her story and in such tragedy. al-jazeera world expose the life and why of maisie adda at this time on al-jazeera. when the news breaks. on the wall that city and the story builds to be forced to leave with

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a living out of his truck for the last couple years. he's home was zero follows a group of u.s. army veterans traumatized by war. as they struggle to get their lives back shelter at this time. but again breaking news this hour here a man claiming allegiance to isolate has taken people hostage in southern france the siege of the supermarkets in the town of peb is being called an act of terrorism by the french prime minister al jazeera as paul brennan is live for us in

paris monitoring developments for what's the latest. yeah the latest as far as we know is that the situation is very much ongoing and remains fluid the supermarket it's called a super supermarket a well known brand of supermarket here in france it's down in southwest it's a place called crab down at the pier a nice and the evolution of the incident that has unfolded this morning it started in a place called caucus on it's about eight kilometers six miles ten minutes drive away maximum form trap and that for officers of the c.r.s. which is the french riot police squads out jogging out running not clear whether they were actually in uniform as part of a on duty fitness test or regime or whether they were just together out keeping fit in general it appears they were approached by a man in

a vehicle who first of all spoke to them then started threatening them claimed to have been a soldier a dash and then shot at them produced a gun and shot happen one of those four officers was wounded in the shoulder and the man then made his escape the next we hear is a few minutes later a short distance away and tribe to supermarkets shots fired at least witnesses talking about it least two people visible motionless on the ground their condition as yet unknown the supermarket has been isolated and surrounded by police and the gunman as far as we know is still inside with an unknown number of potential hostages the prime minister of france said what phillipe was in eastern france on on a visit at the time he is now on route back here to paris to take control of the situation from here to brief the president president who we're expecting to speak very shortly but before he left east in france edward phillipe gave the some basic

details to the media there lets him. which is a. little bit of a ten thirty am. unarmed man went towards a for security officer one of them was going to tickle his condition has not been established then. hostages have been taken police were quickly deployed to the scene of the operation is still going to go the anti terror unit of the paris prosecutor's office has been engaged to open an investigation all the information we have at the moment leads us to believe that this is an act of terrorism part so that was the prime minister speaking a short time ago the obvious question as to people why what is it about about this area why while attack there well there would be no there's no apparent reason why tribe specifically although southwest of france has been an area where people who have launched

attacks have come from you know there's been a number of people from that sort of lose must say kind of area of southern france where they've come from and there is a large sort of ethnic african. community down that but there's no real reason that we can see initially here as to why caucus on or should have been targeted specifically by this individual that have been several attacks here in france recently by people i say recently over the last three or four years by people claiming to be either acting directly under instructions from or at least inspired by i saw some times the prosecutors they were fine great difficulty in actually finding a direct link between them sometimes these individuals are simply disillusioned individuals acting perhaps inspired by the conflict in syria for example or by

radicalized videos videos that the made the radicalized on the internet without actually acting on the direct and. i seem to have lost. our signal to work to pull in in paris for the moment so i will come back to him as soon as we can. france's interior ministry spokesman has been telling french media that. the ministry cannot confirm yet that they have been in deaths in the hostage situation obviously we were telling you paul was telling you about those reports all that least two people lying prone motionless outside the supermarket in scribe earlier and of course we don't know the condition of anyone inside the building inside that supermarket where the gunman holed up with at least one person we're told possibly a policeman but france interior ministry telling us that. his ministry cannot

confirm any deaths as yet in the southern france hostage situation a little as paul was saying this is still a very fluid situation although we heard a little earlier from prime minister at what phillipe saying that the hostage taking seems to be. a terrorist act the promise of the hostage situation is ongoing the operation is not over. all the information we have as i speak he said leads us to think that this would be a terrorist act he also said that one police officer had been injured but that his life wasn't in danger now that was in the earlier incident the pool was telling us about in a caucus on where the gunman confronted a group of. policemen who were out jogging. french media saying that during that earlier incident when the policeman was injured in the shoulder the hostage taker with a man they assume to be the hostage make

a six to eight miles away into cab claimed allegiance to islamic state another prime minister interestingly made no mention of that in his statement a little earlier so this ongoing instant. in southwestern france a hostage situation where a gunman who was involved in an earlier incident in the black caucus on is holding at least one person hostage at a supermarket in the town of cab. in the pyrenees in southwestern france. two people reported to be well injured at least lying prone in the car park outside no word on their condition the interior ministry telling us telling media that. that it cannot come. any deaths in that ongoing hostage situation that speak to

a libya great detail security expert direct. from the consultancies. global strapped security a political risk analyst good to have you with us libya what are your thoughts on this incident in southwestern france. more information is coming in. and surprising that french has been hit again. looks. jihadist behind. he's a very well known to security services. allegedly french media just reported that he was known as being one of the first. to join the jihad so fine you can we. are traitors.

why why this area libya well what is it about the caucus on and as well why would this area in particular have been targeted. there is no particular reason and that's what's extremely concerning and what we've seen in the past is. the fact that it's a much easier target than the jihadists locally. was much easier targeted. a supermarket or police or hand here and then factories. one of the nazis is that. much more cured. but that's extremely concerning in terms of future attacks. as we're speaking the the associated press is reporting that we can't independently verify this but they say that crossing french police is saying that two people have been killed in this incident in iraq

a dozen people wounded in that that that hostage taking situation how would police now be looking to bring this situation to a close. i mean it's a fluid situation what i and. many reports high's. one policeman as a hostage as a demented released. unlike jihadists from november two thousand seen attacked in paris a lot of the slum was in jail entrenched. so i would suspect truth being. a negotiation. long in long lasting but i suspect the security services would like to end this quickly and not making it a long long situation and ready. i've been on the ground.

looking guy that still. it might be a feast where they will have to intervene by force but quickly not too much true crime gone that all of creation you know with with two people already dead if that is confirmed what french police are saying and with one at least one hostage inside the supermarket and the chances of this hostage taker getting out of this alive a very slim i should imagine. yes and i know also remember that most of the jihadists want to get killed during operation still you know when. i clean more or by not getting caught by the police bullets like that in terms of the bakery the i'm the person it can be the mission that we received is correct it's life is where it would like to go in one way or another ok how would

how would police of dealt with this situation from the start i mean. as far as we were aware of the this all began at about ten thirty this morning what what would have been happening within the security forces how would they have mobilized and dealt with this incident. mean we have it sitting here even like. this. attack on on. license the modus operandi of the jihadists. sometimes getting on the. french. gone directly from shooting at the police. for what is in a hostage is there and then. you would have been pursued by the police then and then to call in because obviously it's

a small town. called in the swat team and. prepare for a. negotiation or an assault and all this is. we don't know when. it's difficult to speculate but usually. it's what. are called in from around the around. coming to him and i think within within the hour living a good story too many thanks indeed for being with us and i was here at the equator the. speaking security expert about the situation in the south of france if you've just joined us this is al jazeera with live coverage of a developing situation in southwestern france where a man claiming allegiance to eisele has taken people hostage. at

a supermarket in the town of crab which been called by called an act of terrorism by the french prime minister there are reports the associated press quoting french police saying two people are dead in a number of others injured at that supermarket however the french interior. the ministry is telling the media that it cannot confirm. that there have been any deaths at this supermarket in southwestern france other french news media reporting that the hostage taker has asked for the release of the paris november twenty fifteen attack sala the slum citing anonymous source he's the prime surviving suspect in the attacks in paris that killed some one hundred and thirty people. following all of this all of these developments for us is paul brennan who is in paris. paul we heard from the prime minister a little earlier on today saying that all of this began at ten thirty this morning

in nearby caucus on we are i hope you're can still hear me us a little bit crackly my apiece there for a second. carry on paul. just to say if i can run through some of the base details that we know but i can also say that twelve thirty g.m.t. the french president manuel macron is due to give a news conference he's currently in brussels at the european council summit there he's obviously being briefed by the prime minister filipe who is returning from eastern france here to paris but obviously the president will be getting his own briefings from the security services taney asli to the briefings he'll be receiving from the prime minister he's going to give a news conference about the incident in at around twelve thirty g.m.t.

so we're going to keep an eye open for that that's not very far away briefly to bring you up to speed and to bring the viewers up to speed what what we know so far is that there was a group of four c. estes a french riot police who officers who are out jogging out running in khakis on they were approached by a man in a vehicle in a car he threatened them he claimed to be a soldier a dash he produced a gun and shot at those four officers wounding one officer in the shoulder at that point while the other three were tending to their wounded colleague the man went off in the car departed in the vehicle and the next we hear is a few minutes later some eight kilometers away six miles away in the nearby town of treb. supermarket more shots fired and the man inside the supermarket apparently with hostages now the latest information that we're hearing from tribe is from the mare tribe who is now saying that at least two people have been at

least wounded initially said dead but is now corrected himself to say that at least wounded and he said that the gunman is alone in the supermarket with a police officer and the latest information from the men as reported by local media is that all other hostages. appeared to been released that we understand to be inside that supermarket at the time all of the gunmen walking in now appeared to manage to be evacuated or escape and the current situation the supermarket being surrounded by police officers is that one police officer remains inside with the go with the gunmen under situation remains fluid and ongoing pulled from this prime minister spoke within the last hour he said that the hostage taking seems to be an act of terrorism yes indeed edward

phillipe as i said was over in eastern france on one of his normal visits talking to local people there as prime ministers do they go around the country and then the news of this attack filtered through to him he immediately made plans to come straight back to paris but before he departed he actually spoke to the local media there his information and we'll i think i think we may hear a clip from it in just a second is that this shooting happened first in cacace song and then at the instant then moved to tribe are pulled for the moment many thanks di we will play that clip of the prime minister shortly we're waiting on that press conference as paul was saying there from emanuel mccrone the the president of france will take that as soon as it begins in the meantime let's speak with the u.s. a who joins us now live from paris he's special ist on national security and racism

good to have you with us what do you make of this this ongoing situation in southwest of france. no not because information keeps coming out of the only. people. by the government you know they say it's an act of terror based on what you should go on and second. and not so if there was then what happened to all the measures the government has. mississippi emergency. and the problems given to the police. government. right now. or the middle of the participle to. call him to power little boy. with this kind of rhetoric i just thought it did again and again every time you speak about collusion ship. or a specific religion would become targets. because.

we're going to have. the guys at the ministry hours but again i'm not surprised but the government action. in the next few hours is you know we're going to. the government. but again if the government want to be yes what are we to make of these reports that the we assume it was all staged. during the incident in caucus on when police were shot at a man claimed allegiance to eisele and apparently with all the media reporting that that now the man is indeed the supermarket with at least one hostage is asking for the release of. the slam. the prime surviving suspect in the paris attacks. no one thought this was really what happened. so everybody said. that

he had not had to conditional to whatever it was more a case of psychological but actually this was a silly game and. you know if this person spends to have. been what i would have been a chance to do legal holcombe be acquitted on the river and if he were not happy ending him. into actually the second point just. to go for the flies seven months in the government or something it's not just any connection between a dozen men and some of this number how does this situation how do you see the situation coming to an end and and what will the repercussions the yes a wonderful moment when he still is still french police have the right to have a good heard. before he can get to them so that the upper hand you can keep him alive before they were given and then bring it before justice otherwise it. is

going to go down and we want to question and. already africa took too many thanks indeed yes a lot to the specialist on national security and racism does come back to us here as paul brennan in paris is watching developments for us out of southwest of france paul what's the latest. we're still waiting for the president to appear in brussels at the moment he's going to be giving a news conference in brussels he's there at the european summit and he's going to give some more details we hope adding to what the prime minister filipe gave earlier bear in mind the interior minister is on route down to the tribe at the moment to see for himself what the situation is on the paris prosecutor who leads on anti terror investigations has taken charge of this case based on the evidence so far emerging which very much very strongly suggests that this person who has

been shooting people down in type and caucus on is at least claiming affiliations i still may even be directly involved with i still as far as the condition of the offices the officer who was shot in caucus on no clear details yet local media suggesting he may have a punctured lung but b. c s which is the squad to the anti riot squad of which he was a member have not released any details about his condition and the manner of cock of ted which is where this supermarket is saying that as far as the hostage taking situation goes it now appears that all the shoppers inside that super super market on the outskirts of the village of trip now appear to be evacuated or skate from the supermarkets and the gunman appears to be alone with

a police officer. appears the police officer as i've offered himself up in the exchange for the for the civilians or or was taken hostage by the gunmen quite deliberately that's from the met of tribal pull where you've been talking for you may have seen it but the news agencies reporting now that apparently the same car. has been links between these to. didn't see is this this one you talked about you talked about in the caucus on. the hostage situation in tab and another report saying that the hostage taker the man currently in that supermarket with at least one hostage is known to police. right well certainly it would fit with the details that we know so far. the close proximity for example of the two incidents caucus on is just eight and a half kilometers barely six miles away from tribe it would seem extraordinary if

it was two separate incidents so the knowledge now that the same car is being linked to both is both obvious i suppose but certainly it's reassuring to know that there aren't two separate gunmen one shooting at riot squad officers out for a jog and caucus on on a separate gun man taking aim at people at the choppers at the super so the use of one car seems to suggest we're now just talking about one gunman it seems to confirm that type of scenario. as far as the use of the hostages in the situation on the ground yeah the supermarket itself is surrounded by police as you would obviously imagine and to the knowledge of the we haven't had an identity put to the man yet i haven't seen a name put to him but the french security agencies are pretty well versed now in the acts of terrorism which of happened on french soil they

do have a pretty extensive network have been enough attacks here to really focus their minds and make it a matter of absolute top priority to get under the skin of those who would try to attack civilians in this way so while i haven't seen a name suggested for the gunman who is at that supermarket i wouldn't have it surprised if as you say the police and the security services actually already have an inkling of exactly who he is not least from the use of the car if it is a car linked to him directly or linked to a relative for example they run a they run the number plates and they pretty quickly can come up with a ballpark guess as to who might be driving behind the wheel or. paul back with you in in just a moment if you've just joined us this is al-jazeera live from doha with the coverage of a developing story in the southwest of france where a man claiming allegiance to i saw has taken people hostage siege at a supermarket in the town of curb is being called an act of terrorism by francis

prime minister here here is talking a short time ago. with the most fearful to the deal at ten thirty am. an armed man went towards for security officers one of them was going to his condition has not been established then at heb kneecapped us on hostages have been taken police were quickly deployed to the scene and the operation is still going go the anti terror unit of the paris prosecutor's office has been engaged to open an investigation all the information we have at the moment leads us to believe that this is an act of terrorism we've stayed on the air while we await. france president. he's due to give a news conference on the situation or at least make a statement about the situation in the southwest of france in brussels where of course he's at that e.u. summit that we've been reporting on here at al-jazeera that press conference was

due to begin. some twenty minutes ago now getting on for twenty minutes as you can see the no sign of it beginning as yet we will take you live to brussels as well about your own background comes out to make that statement in the meantime let's go back to paul brennan who is following developments. in southwestern france from paris paul. as we heard what phillipe the prime minister pretty quickly coming out and saying that this hostage taking seems to be an act of terror . yes he's basing that on the initial details which emerge from the first incident at caucus on where the gun man who emerged from this vehicle and threatened and then shot at the c.r.s. riot squad officers who were out on a on a jog running claiming that this gunman claimed to be a soldier

a dash so very quickly the focus of the investigation was paying attention to the high probability that this was a least an iso inspired attack i think one of the reasons why it's likely that the french president is slightly late arriving at the podium is i understand that the news conference that he was due to give a twelve thirty was appreciate jeweled news conference he was expecting i said i suspect to be talking more about breakfast issues and general european issues he's having to be brought very swiftly up to speed with the incident in the the events down in cacace on and travel and to come up with a statesman like response to it in addition to the president who is in paris being briefed about the ongoing situation the interior minister gillard cologne is due to arrive in tribe pretty shortly i understand he's being whisked down there the the

strikes which are blighting of the rail network here in france will not affect senior diplomats and senior members of the government such as him and he will no doubt make a statement once he reaches type and speaks to the police officers in the security services who are currently surrounding that supermarkets he will probably also visit the the wounded riot squad officer who was who was first shot at in the earlier incident so you can see that all the all the different aspects of the government and the security agencies are coming together and it's getting up to speed in a in a very coordinated way to respond to what's been happening this morning today all right so let's let's. draw all this together if we can and separate the confirm from the un confirm these reports about the hostages taken making dumond's we've got reports of a perhaps bodies in in the supermarket or in the car park of the supermarket what

do we know for sure here paul about what has actually happened. well let's get let's go through what we know for sure somewhere around ten thirty local time french time. caucus on it down in the southwest of france near the french pier a nice nice little town and it's the place where there's a group of riot squad officers who are based in fact they have units all over france for these officers were out jogging in the morning not sure as to whether they were actually in uniform or whether they had on the any other insignia to signify that they were rocks court officers there approached by a man in a car he brandishes a weapon he shoots at these four one of those officers is wounded in the shoulder that same man is then then get back in the car and drives to ted about eight kilometers away six miles takes no more than about ten minutes it's now known that the same vehicle is involved in the first caucus on shooting and then the hostage

taking inscribe so we can rule out i think pretty definitively now any rumors that there may be two separate gunmen on the loose here we're now talking about one gunman involved. he opened fire in the car park of the supermarket we've got confirmed witness reports of at least two people motionless on the ground some reports suggest that they're dead but they are not confirmed yet and the man has come out and told local media that the the hostages saw civilians who were inside the supermarket when the gunman went in they have now been evacuated or escaped the men out of type is saying that the only person left inside that supermarket with the gunman is a local police officer and negotiations and. the situation there is ongoing the supermarket is contained surrounded by police officers what we don't know yet is two things first of all how many people have actually been killed as

a result of this and second of all whether the man who has claimed affiliation to iceland is actually. soldier or dash or whether he's just a disillusioned individual who is claiming affiliation after watching some videos on you tube for example and i suppose is the first thing that we don't know as well and that is exactly how the police are going to resolve all of this from ivan many thanks let's let's bring in gillian tett on who's in paris a political scientist analyst a specialist in international security at census paul a specialist in geopolitical conflicts and terrorism he's on the line now what are your thoughts on this incident. it's pretty long time that actually we didn't suffer these kind of. important reforms. because in chief terror attacks in charley of the plan. it probably

increased to the culpability of the intelligence services and we also worked on the intel probably to see the lead police forces. able to react more quickly and what do we see that actually even the. remote area. the. pretty quickly. the state actually pretty well but of course it's always been hard to know when one of the elements. among thousands. of chile. as you said it's been some time since the blast a an attack on french soil so this is today. the mark of a failure in security something gone wrong here or is it actually a mark of success the fact that there hasn't been attack an attack for quite some

time. i think that issue talk to any kind of intelligence person will. not it's kind of impossible to prevent. the integral risk and the risk always exists. the one person that talks of course we have to know all the elements related to the story before and are using its properly but i mean the person who's acting doesn't mean that the entire security system. is failing of course not it's very hard to put many people in the survey so it's very important to get all the evil signals and so on to be done to hide the risk in this respect i think it's pretty much a success adaptability of the french secret until now but now it comes at a time where the ice is east on need to reach we have been defeated but since

two years you probably know. said that there were coming back to columbus meaning clinics to not just for attacks meaning that site is not dead and the risk is still here as we see today especially because the. the the hostage taker for abduction one two three caliber salaam was one of the attackers but i can attack in two thousand and fifteen ok and very briefly does that mean that that france needs to be prepared is to brace itself for more incidents such as these. well not scary people about dogs but it's dramatic really important i think that's a lot different security especially said about their resilience is tremendous important for. the arts and ventured that by pure reason in iraq or

wherever good behavior of the population is very important and are surely even before the bit between the child you have to undertake on westfield the french side acting with pretty much three billion yes ok important good to talk to many thanks indeed for being with the show intent on the in paris we're getting reports here from the wall the news agency is reporting quoting the french interior ministry saying that two people have been killed in this hostage situation in southwestern france one person has been wounded one of them seriously three people rather wounded one of them seriously in the incident and the police operation in it's. still ongoing that's the reuters news agency quoting the french interior ministry just to remind you of what we've been covering for this last here on al-jazeera if you've just joined us about this. what's been going on here

a man claiming allegiance to eisele has taken people hostage in southern france in an ongoing incident which began a neighbor kaka song about ten thirty this morning the french prime minister has called what's going on here an act of terrorism a lone gunman we understand it holed up in a supermarket our coverage will continue here on al-jazeera in just a couple of minutes we'll hopefully will get that press conference from president emanuel back on in brussels will take a short break and be back with the news hour just a moment. from

the neon lights of asia. to the city that never sleeps. at the usual russia showers across the amazon basin we're going to see some rather wet weather eventually making its way to rules of a plate u.i.c. some pretty thick but big down poles by the end of the weekend for the here and now it's not a bad across northern parts of tina but a seris at twenty eight degrees celsius little more cloud there just to the south of the seris salazar into eastern parts of power why then this line of plow this little convergence develops and we'll see some really heavy down poles particularly across here of why so the likelihood of some flooding here as we go on through saturday elsewhere the usual showers will continue not too bad meanwhile across the caribbean please guys some lovely weather for the most part they have an affair with a cloud over toward sea. perhaps he ought chad just creeping in here from time to time but i think by and large it's looking more sunny than sharon that's the case

too across the greater antilles as we go on through sas day a similar page we just want to show is heading towards the dominican republic procession america generally try a few showers there into nicaragua costa rica but for the most part again fine dry and sunny dry sunny too into central parts of the u.s. not a little system just making its way across the rockies that will make its way further east with those leaves and. the way that sponsored by cattle and race. this is zero live from doha with ongoing coverage of a developing situation in the southwest of france where a man claiming allegiance to i saw has to.