This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A memorial service has been held for the four victims of the terrorist shooting spree and supermarket hostage-taking in southern France, as police continued to question two teenagers about the gunman, who claimed allegiance to Islamic State.

The Catholic church service in the small town of Trèbes, near Carcassonne, was attended by religious leaders and local imams as well as mourners, survivors and rescue workers. The bishop of Carcassonne and Narbonne, Alain Planet, called for community cohesion and the courage “to rebuild a society where events like this would no longer be possible”.

Lt Col Arnaud Beltrame, who was killed after swapping places with a hostage. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

A national memorial organised by the government will be held at a later date for the gendarme Lt Col Arnaud Beltrame, 45, who died from bullet and stab wounds after taking the place of supermarket hostages the gunman, Radouane Lakdim, had used as a human shield during the attack on Friday.

After the interior minister, Gérard Collomb, said he believed Lakdim had acted alone, on Sunday police were continuing to question a 17-year-old as well as Lakdim’s 18-year-old girlfriend. It emerged that the gunman also brought homemade explosives into the supermarket where he took customers hostage.

Lakdim, 25, a small-time drug-dealer who had French nationality and was born in Morocco, left a handwritten letter at his home pledging allegiance to Isis, according to a legal source.

Despite being on a watchlist for people considered potential extremists and having been under surveillance for potential radicalisation in 2016 and 2017, Lakdim carried out the armed attacks on Friday not far from his home in the picturesque town of Carcassonne.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, responding to the worst jihadist attack since he took office last year, has called an urgent meeting this week of the security services responsible for monitoring individuals suspected of radicalisation.

The US president, Donald Trump, tweeted praise of Beltrame and called for stronger border measures.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) France honors a great hero. Officer died after bravely swapping places with hostage in ISIS related terror attack. So much bravery around the world constantly fighting radical Islamic terrorism. Even stronger measures needed, especially at borders!

On Friday morning in Carcassonne, Lakdim first approached a parked Opel Corsa, wounded the driver and shot dead its passenger, Jean Mazières, 61, a winemaker from a local village who had just retired. Mazières was active in community events. He had been due to take a bus to Toulouse for a museum trip on Friday but had decided not to go.

Lakdim took the car Mazières had been sitting in and drove towards military and police barracks, shooting at four police officers returning from a jog, seriously injuring one of them.

He then drove to the Super U supermarket in Trèbes, armed with a gun, knife and explosives, opening fire as he walked in and shouting that he was a soldier from Isis.

In front of terrified staff, Lakdim immediately shot dead Christian Medves, 50, a butcher in charge of the meat counter. A father of two, Medves was an active trade unionist who came from a large family with Italian roots.

'He has fallen a hero': French gendarme who replaced hostages dies Read more

Lakdim then shot dead Hervé Sosna, 65, who was making his way to the checkouts to pay for his shopping. Sosna’s neighbour told Le Parisien: “I saw him leave [his house] in the morning. I offered to give him a lift, but he always refused. He preferred to walk. He loved walking.”

The hostage situation lasted over three hours. Police, after hearing shots, finally stormed the supermarket where Lakdim had been left holding only Beltrame. Beltrame died later from his injuries.

A further 16 people were injured in the attacks.

The shooting spree was the first major attack since Macron lifted France’s state of emergency and toughened anti-terrorism laws last autumn. In a TV address, Macron declared: “Our country has suffered an Islamist terrorist attack.”

He said the current threat in France was not the same as in 2015 when 130 people were killed in the November Paris attacks and operations were being ordered from Iraq and Syria. He said the current threat was from dangerous individuals in France.