French PM attends funerals for 4 victims of extremist attack

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, right, and family members pay their last respects Thursday during the funeral service for the four people killed in a terrorist attack in the town of Trebes. (AFP)

PARIS: French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and senior figures of the French government attended the funerals in southern France Thursday for the four victims of last week’s extremist gun rampage.
The ceremonies took place in the quiet Aude region that was the site of a deadly carjacking, gun spree and supermarket hostage-taking.
Philippe spoke to families of the victims and local residents in Trebes as the funeral convoys of Herve Sosna, Christian Medves and Jean Mazieres arrived — and their coffins were put on display in a large square.
Mazieres, 60, was killed by attacker Redouane Lakdim during the carjacking; Medves, 50, was shot in the supermarket, where he worked as a butcher; construction worker Sosna, 65, was a customer in the supermarket.
A private religious ceremony took place afterward for slain police officer Arnaud Beltrame in nearby Carcassonne, and it will be followed by a burial later in the cemetery of Ferrals-les-Corbieres.
On Wednesday, France held a national homage to Beltrame, a colonel, who was given a posthumous Legion of Honor for his heroism in swapping himself for a hostage and potentially preventing further killings.