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Terror-hit French town suffers second trauma in floods
PARIS, Oct 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A French town that was the scene of a
jihadist shooting spree earlier this year has been swamped by floods, with
one local woman known to have lost her husband in the attack and her parents
in the latest disaster, officials said Tuesday.
The sleepy medieval town of Trebes was targeted by a gunman in March who
killed four people during a rampage that saw him take shoppers and staff
hostage at a local supermarket.
The attack became a focus of global attention when a police officer at the
scene, 44-year-old Arnaud Beltrame, agreed to swap himself for a hostage
before being killed by the gunman, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic
State group.
Seven months later, the Super U supermarket, like much else in Trebes, has
been swamped by devastating storms that ripped through the region of
southwest France near the city of Carcassonne on Sunday night.
At least 11 people have died in the flooding in the Aude area of France and
three people are missing after violent rainstorms turned the normally placid
local rivers into raging torrents that washed away bridges, roads and homes.
One resident in Trebes has suffered a triple bereavement in the terror
attack and flooding, local officials and neighbours told AFP on Tuesday.
Her husband, a 61-year-old retired winemaker named Jean Mazieres, was the
first victim of the jihadist after he was shot dead in a parked car in an
apparently random shooting.
The woman’s elderly parents, both in their 80s, were washed away Monday by
waters of the Aude river, which officials say rose eight metres (26 feet) in
just five hours.
“It’s horrible. The widow has lost both her parents,” a neighbour, Valerie
Puerta, told AFP. “Every day a nurse would come to check on the couple. They
lived by the river in Trebes.”
BSS/AFP/SSS/1744 hrs