The policeman who died in last week’s extremist attack in southern France is being honoured in an elaborate, daylong national homage led by French President Emmanuel Macron.
It comes as questions are being raised about possible failures in French counter-terrorism tracking of the gunman, who was on a radicalisation watch list before he went on a rampage last Friday.
The French president will deliver a public eulogy in front of colleagues and family of Mr Beltrame, who died of his wounds on Saturday morning, hours after swapping himself for a hostage during a siege in a supermarket.
Three former presidents, Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy and Valery Giscard d’Estaing, are also attending in a symbol of the political dimension this ceremony has taken.
Some 2,000 high school students and scores of police attended the Paris event that began as gendarmes sang the French revolutionary anthem the Marseillaise in the stone courtyard of the French Interior Ministry.
Speaking on France Inter, amid questions on possible failures in counter-terrorism tracking, Mr Collomb confirmed the security services were about to reduce the surveillance on Lakdim, who was on a radicalisation watch list.
Questions have been also raised by authorities in Morocco.
Since the attack, the agency — created three years ago to consolidate counter-terrorism efforts — has been investigating Lakdim’s family members in Morocco, Abdelhak Khiame told The Associated Press
Lakdim visited Morocco several times, most recently in February 2012, before the establishment of the Islamic State, Mr Khiame added.
