Reports of hostage situation after French cop shot

Police surrounded a supermarket in southern France on Friday as a possible hostage-taking situation played out after the shooting of a police officer. At least one witnesses told French media that a man holding people in the shop claimed he was loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but police have not confirmed any motive or the exact nature of the incident.

According to France's BFMTV, the Ministry of the Interior confirmed that a security operation was underway in the Aude region of southern France. The channel reported that four French police from Marseille first came under fire from at least one gunman in a vehicle in the town of Carcassone. The car then proceeded to Trebes, where a suspect went into a "Super U" store, taking a number of shoppers hostages.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities, and the officer who was shot was not said to have been critically wounded.

BFMTV said, according to a witness, that the the hostage-taker declared himself, "a soldier of the Islamic State."