The four people held hostage since 1 p.m. in a pizzeria in Issy-les-Moulineaux by a man armed with a knife were released around 4 p.m., a police source told AFP, specifying that the man held hostage had been arrested. The intervention took place without incident, there were no injuries, this source said.
This man “with a drug addict profile”, according to a source close to the case, and who, according to a police source, had already “committed similar acts” at his home in 2022 “with the threat of suicide”, held “three or four employees” but neither “clientele nor public”. He had locked himself in the pizzeria located a few meters from the Paris ring road, southwest of the capital, just before 1 p.m.
Personnel from the BRI (Research and Intervention Brigade, an elite unit of the Parisian police) were deployed on site, including a mediator, “hired because of the person concerned’s desire to commit suicide”, specifies the police source. The man, aged around 35-40 years old according to a source close to the case, is also not known to the courts.
“I see him every evening in passing, he’s not well. He has a drug problem, I think,” says Anthony, a 23-year-old student, who prefers not to give his last name. “I saw the police arriving earlier, it’s impressive… I’ve already been to the restaurant, there was no problem,” adds Monique Teichet, retired and resident of the neighborhood.
In the street a lot of police officers are visible, some wearing helmets and armed, as well as numerous police cars and fire trucks. Around twenty agents, orange armbands on their arms, stand in front of the restaurant. “Intervention in progress, let the security and emergency forces work,” wrote the Police Prefecture on in progress”.
