BREAKING: Police shoot suspected gunman dead in France

*UPDATE

ARMED police have shot the suspected gunman who took hostages at a supermarket in southern France.

According to reports the gunman killed at least two people.

He is also believed to be involved in the shooting of a policeman earlier today some 15 minutes away from the store.

POLICE in France are carrying out a counter-terrorism operation in southern France after reports that a gunman shot at four police officers and then took hostages at a supermarket.

Heavily armed police have surrounded the Super U supermarket in Trebes, south of Toulouse.

Trebes mayor tells LCI TV that the gunman entered the supermarket shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greatest] I’ll kill you all.”

The UNSA police union said on social media that earlier the gunman shot at four officers in the town of Carcassonne, injuring one of them.

The man had declared allegiance to Islamic State, according to the local state prosecutor.

Regional police chief Jean-Valery Lettermann said, “We, unfortunately, presume one person has been killed (in the supermarket), but we cannot bring a doctor on site to check.”