Three gendarmes were shot and a fourth wounded after responding to a domestic violence in Puy-de-Dôme, west of Lyon, in the early hours of Wednesday.
The alleged shooter left the scene and triggered a chase. On Wednesday morning, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted that “the madman was found dead.”
Earlier Wednesday, the minister released a statement expressing “deep sadness” in a statement following the deaths of Lieutenant Cyrille Morel, Commander Rémi Dupuis and Brigadier Arno Mavel of the Puy-de-Dôme Department Gendarmerie who were killed during an intervention for domestic violence.
CNN-affiliated BFM TV reported that police officers were shot dead by a 48-year-old man as they tried to rescue a woman who had sought refuge on the roof of a house. The house was set on fire, but the woman was rescued, BFM reported.
Further details about the suspect’s death have not yet been released.
“Encouraged to intervene to help a woman who had been beaten by her husband, the gendarmes (officers), in circumstances not yet clarified, were shot at by the man and returned,” the interior minister’s statement said.
The statement said Mavel, 21, was seriously injured and subjected to his injuries. The two other officers who conducted a reconnaissance against the house were again caught in the shot. Morel, 45, and Dupuis, 37, were fatally wounded. A fourth officer who was wounded in the thigh is being cared for by the emergency services; his life is not in danger.
On Twitter, French Prime Minister Jean Castex wrote that “this tragedy is affecting us all and saddening the whole country.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the first name of Lieutenant Cyrille Morel.