France has honoured its heroic gendarme Arnaud Beltrame, who died saving hostages’ lives at a supermarket siege last week, with all the respect, gratitude and emotion the grieving country could muster.
In a state ceremony that conveyed France’s pride and profound sadness, President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on Wednesday to the officer who he said had the “gratitude, admiration and affection of the whole country”.
It was the first time Macron had been called upon to deliver a state funeral homage since his election in May 2017. He stood grim-faced as the Marseillaise was played. His speech made reference to Joan of Arc, members of the French resistance and others who had died for the country.
Before hundreds of people, including former presidents, government ministers, military officers and members of the public, Beltrame’s coffin was carried into the cour d’honneur at Les Invalides by 10 gendarmes who had known him. Hundreds more gathered outside.
Beltrame’s képi, the gendarmerie’s headgear, in which he kept a photograph of himself with his wife, Marielle, and his decorations were carried by two officers. He was posthumously promoted to colonel and made a commander of the Légion d’Honneur.
Beltrame was hailed a hero after volunteering on Friday to take the place of a female hostage being held by the suspected Islamist gunman Radouane Lakdim, 25, who had already killed three people.
Lakdim hijacked a car, gunning down a passenger, then stormed a busy supermarket in the town of Trèbes near Carcassonne, killing a member of staff and a customer and declaring his allegiance to Islamic State. He was holding a 40-year-old woman hostage as police and special forces surrounded the building.
Beltrame gave up his weapon and offered to take the place of the woman, named only as Julie, the mother of a two-year-old girl who worked on the checkout.
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