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.

The mother of a French police officer who was killed after he swapped himself for a hostage during an Islamic extremist attack on a supermarket says that she wasn't surprised by her son's courage.

France's top security official says a heroic officer who swapped himself for a hostage during an attack on a supermarket has died of his injuries.