EU gives 'full support' to France over attacks

BRUSSELS: The European Union's top officials offered their full support to the French people over a new set of deadly attacks carried out Friday in France.

"France has again been hit by a cowardly and bloody act, after having previously been hit hard by terrorism," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told an EU summit press conference in Brussels.

"I express in my own name and that of the entire Commission all our feelings and our full support to the French authorities and French people," Juncker said.

The head of the Commission, the 28-nation EU executive, said the "fight against terrorism is a difficult and long drawn-out battle" in a tribute to security forces.

"We will wage it and will win it together," the former Luxembourg prime minister said.

European Council President Donald Tusk, who hosted the summit, expressed similar support at the same press conference with Juncker.

"We are following this closely as we stand in full solidarity with France and its people," said Tusk, a former Polish prime minister.

At least three people were killed Friday in a shooting spree and hostage siege in southern France by a man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group, security sources told AFP.

Security forces killed the gunman -- believed to be a Moroccan who was on a watchlist of suspected Islamist extremists -- after he carried out three separate attacks in the medieval town of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the quick reactions of the emergency services and said he would be returning to Paris from Brussels at the end of the EU summit so he can coordinate the national response.