Two people were killed when a gunman, claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group, opened fire and took hostages at a supermarket in southwest France on Friday.
A security source said the two were killed in the attack on a Super U store in the town of Trebes.
Armed police were responding to the earlier shooting of a policeman in the town of Carcassonne, 15 minutes drive away, which took place at 11 am (1000 GMT).
It was unclear if the two incidents were linked.
In Trebes, a picturesque medieval town of around 5,000 people, the man "entered the Super U supermarket at 11.15 a.m. and shots were heard," a source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
A witness reported he shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) before going into the premises, the source said.
Site off-limits
Local authorities tweeted that the area around the supermarket was off-limits to the public, while Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said it was a "serious" incident.
The shootings come with France still on high alert after a string of jihadist attacks since 2015, starting in January that year with the assault on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.
France also suffered major attacks in Paris in November 2015 when IS jihadists killed 130 people.
