Gendarmerie honours national hero’s memory

The Gendarmerie ceremony honoured the courage of the late Lt. Colonel Arnaud Beltrame. (Photo Robert Luckock)

MARIGOT–The Gendarmerie on Wednesday, in keeping with the national ceremony, paid homage to the courage of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, the Gendarme who swapped himself for a hostage during a supermarket siege last week near the city of Carcassone and later died of his wounds.

It was also a moment to remember the victims of the terrorist attack on Trebes, March 23, 2018.

Lt. Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was dispatched to the scene as part of the Gendarmerie system set up during the terrorist attack in Trebes on March 23 and voluntarily replaced the last hostage in the hands of the terrorist.

Thanks to his telephone left on, the intervention forces were able to follow the situation inside the supermarket. At 2:25 p.m., after further firing, the GIGN Antenna in Toulouse launched the emergency assault plan.

Shot three times by the terrorist, Lieutenant-Colonel Beltrame died during the night of March 23 and 24 March as a result of his injuries, despite the rapid intervention of the emergency services and his treatment at the Carcassonne hospital.

He will be promoted to the rank of Colonel by decision of the President of the Republic. He was 44 years old and married. He was also posthumously awarded the Legion of Honour, France’s highest award.

Present for the brief ceremony were Préfète Déléguée Anne Laubies, Lt. Col. Sébastien Manzoni, Prosecutor Yves Paillard, Vice-President of the Collectivité Yawo Nyuidazi, and representatives from Police aux Frontieres (PAF), Police Territorial and the Fire Department. Following a minute’s silence, the gathering sang the Marseillaise.

Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/75150-gendarmerie-honours-national-hero-s-memory