Paris Hostage Situation

A gunman who took two people hostage in central Paris on Tuesday has been arrested and his victims freed "safe and sound", police in the French capital said.

Armed men who took hostages on Tuesday in the northern French town of Roubaix appeared to have no link to the November 13 attacks by Islamist militants in Paris but were probably planning a robbery, police sources said on Tuesday.

The hostage situation at a post office near Paris has come to an end, and the gunman has been arrested, news agency Agence France Presse quoted the police as saying.

A gunman took two women hostage in a jewellery store in the southern French city of Montpellier on Friday before giving himself up, officials said, adding the incident had no link to the Islamist violence around Paris.

French security forces struggled with two rapidly developing hostage-taking situations Friday, one northeast of Paris where two terror suspects were holed up with a hostage in a printing plant and the other an attack on a kosher market in Paris.

A new shooting has been reported in eastern Paris, where an armed man has taken a hostage at a grocery, news agency AFP reported, quoting sources.

French anti-terrorist police surrounded a small northern town and helicopters hovered overhead after at least one person was taken hostage in a print works by two men believed to have carried out an attack on a Paris satirical journal.

A gunman who took two people hostage in central Paris on Tuesday has been arrested and his victims freed "safe and sound", police in the French capital said.

Armed men who took hostages on Tuesday in the northern French town of Roubaix appeared to have no link to the November 13 attacks by Islamist militants in Paris but were probably planning a robbery, police sources said on Tuesday.

The hostage situation at a post office near Paris has come to an end, and the gunman has been arrested, news agency Agence France Presse quoted the police as saying.

A gunman took two women hostage in a jewellery store in the southern French city of Montpellier on Friday before giving himself up, officials said, adding the incident had no link to the Islamist violence around Paris.

French security forces struggled with two rapidly developing hostage-taking situations Friday, one northeast of Paris where two terror suspects were holed up with a hostage in a printing plant and the other an attack on a kosher market in Paris.

A new shooting has been reported in eastern Paris, where an armed man has taken a hostage at a grocery, news agency AFP reported, quoting sources.

French anti-terrorist police surrounded a small northern town and helicopters hovered overhead after at least one person was taken hostage in a print works by two men believed to have carried out an attack on a Paris satirical journal.