AKIPRESS.COM - A police officer who swapped himself for a hostage in a supermarket siege is fighting for his life in hospital, BBC reported referring to French President Emmanuel Macron.

The gendarme, whom media named as Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, helped bring an end to a gunman's shooting spree that killed three in southern France.

The gunman - 25-year-old Redouane Lakdim - said he had been acting on behalf of the Islamic State group.

He was shot dead by French police after mounting three separate attacks.

Sixteen people were injured, two seriously, in what Mr Macron called an act of "Islamist terrorism".

Lakdim is said to have been demanding the release of Salah Abdeslam, the most important surviving suspect in the 13 November 2015 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people.

One person - believed to be Lakdim's partner - has been arrested in connection with the shootings.