Paris: Several people were taken hostage by an unknown gunman at a post office in Colombes, a northwest suburb of Paris, on Friday. After negotiations, the assailant handed himself over to the police. The gunman was armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, a gun and numerous grenades. A police source later said: “There was no assault, the man gave himself up”. They added that the hostages were “shocked but not injured”.
Another police insider had previously told French media that the hostage-taker appeared to be “unbalanced” and was speaking of “heartbreak” when he called them earlier.
The situation at the post office in Colombes is not linked to the Paris shootings last week that left 20 people dead. The French media claimed the gunman was known to police as a petty crime suspect.
The perimeter around the post office was secured and a helicopter was deployed to the area as the hostage situation unfolded. The post office is located around 10 miles away from the Charlie Hebdo offices, where 12 people were massacred by terrorists on January 7.
Meanwhile, 12 people were arrested in connection with terrorism around Paris on Friday following a night of violence in nearby Belgium, which saw two suspected Jihadis killed. The suspects detained by the French police were questioned over “possible logistical support” they gave to gunmen in last week’s attacks.
Earlier today a train station in Paris was evacuated after a bomb threat. All passengers and staff were evacuated but it appears the security scare was a false alarm.
In Germany, too, the police carried out raids on 11 properties and arrested two people suspected of having links to radical Islamists. On Thursday night, in the town of Verviers, near Belgium’s border with Germany, two suspects died in a fire fight. They were suspected of planning a ‘Belgium Charlie Hebdo’ – a reference to the attack on the satirical magazine in the French capital last week in which 12 died.
