A hostage situation was unfolding in a small city in southern France on Friday, after a man entered a local supermarket and opened fire.
The Paris prosecutor’s office, which handles terrorism cases nationwide, quickly opened an investigation into the ongoing incident, as security forces scrambled to secure the area in the southwestern French city of Trebes.
At least one person was killed while another was seriously wounded, according to police sources cited in French media.
“All the information we have at our disposal leads us to believe it would seem to be a terrorist act,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said, speaking to reporters early Friday afternoon.
Gerard Collomb, France’s interior minister, announced on Twitter that he was immediately leaving for the area.
According to French media reports, the attacker claimed to be connected to the Islamic State, but any connection is unconfirmed.
The hostage attack followed an earlier incident Friday morning, in which a man opened fire on a group of four members of France’s national C.R.S. police force in the nearby city of Carcassonne, wounding one of the officers.
The connection between the two events, if any, was not immediately clear.
A hostage scenario at a supermarket immediately recalled the January 2015 attack on the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket outside Paris, where four were killed.
Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.