Paris (CNN) -
A man suspected of killing three police officers in central France has been found dead, the country's interior minister said.
Three gendarmes were shot dead and a fourth wounded after they responded to an incident of domestic violence in the Puy-de-Dôme department, west of Lyon, early Wednesday morning.
The suspected shooter left the scene, prompting a chase.
On Wednesday morning, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted that "the madman was found dead."
Early on Wednesday, the minister issued a statement expressing "deep sadness" after the deaths of Lieutenant Cyril Morel, Second Lieutenant Rémi Dupuis and Brigadier Arno Mavel, from the Puy-de-Dôme Departmental Gendarmerie, who were killed during an intervention for domestic violence in Saint-Just.
CNN affiliate BFM TV reported that a 48-year-old man fatally shot police officers while trying to rescue a woman who had taken 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.
advertising
LEE
: French police officers are suspended after a video appeared of them beating a black man
"Called to intervene to help a woman who had been beaten by her husband, the gendarmes (police), in circumstances that have not yet been clarified, were shot by the man and returned fire," says the Interior Minister's statement.
The statement said that Mavel, 21, was seriously injured and succumbed to his injuries.
The other two officers who were conducting a reconnaissance of the house were in turn caught under fire.
Morel, 45, and Dupuis, 37, were mortally wounded.
A fourth policeman who was injured in the thigh is being treated by the emergency services;
His life is not in danger.
On Twitter, the Prime Minister of France, Jean Castex, wrote that "this tragedy affects us all and afflicts the whole country."
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Wednesday that police officers “intervened to rescue a woman victim of domestic violence in Puy-de-Dôme, three gendarmes died and a fourth was injured.
The nation adds to the pain of families.
To protect us, our forces act at the risk of their lives.
They are our heroes.
Fanny Bobille reported from Paris and Samantha Beech reported from Atlanta.