No Filipino hurt in ‘terror attack’ in southern France —DFA

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano (AP file photo)

No Filipino was hurt in the latest deadly terrorist attack in southern France, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Saturday.

This after a gun-wielding extremist, who was known to French police for his drug-dealing activities, went on a shooting spree.

The DFA said no Filipino casualty was reported to the Philippine Embassy in Paris when the gunman killed three persons and wounded 16 others in a shooting rampage across Carcassonne and Trebes in France.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of France today as they mourn those who lost their lives in the terrorist incident in Carcassonne,” DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement.

“We stand with France and the rest of the world in condemning this incident,” he added.

READ: Extremist slain, 3 dead after rampage in southern France

In a report by the Associated Press, the suspect was identified by the French Interior Ministry as 25-year-old French-Moroccan Redouane Lakdim. He was known to police for petty crime and drug-dealing.

Lakdim started the rampage after he hijacked a vehicle and opened fire on civilians as well as police officers. He also took several hostages at a supermarket, starting an hours-long standoff. He was slain after elite police forces stormed the supermarket.

French President Emmanuel Macron considered the attack to be an “act of Islamist terror.” The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attacks. /jpv