An inmate from the Arles central prison took several staff members hostage this Friday, January 3. The hostage taker, aged 37, finally ended up surrendering to the police.
A hostage-taking took place this Friday, January 3, 2025, at Arles prison, in Bouches-du-Rhône. A 37-year-old inmate had been holding five people with a knife in a health unit since 10:45 a.m.
• Hostages released unharmed
After five hours of negotiations, the detainee finally surrendered to the police. During a briefing with the press, the Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect, Pierre-Édouard Colliex, assured that “things ended well”.
Shortly before surrendering, the suspect released a doctor he was holding. A prison guard and three nurses were also held hostage.
Pierre-Édouard Colliex assured that the people taken hostage were not physically injured. However, he underlined the psychological consequences of such a long hostage-taking, which “can leave significant traces and trauma”. The hostages were taken care of by medical teams.
• The Raid mobilized on site
During the hostage-taking, several intervention teams were mobilized on site. Among them was the Raid, but also a regional intervention and security team, made up of prison staff trained to manage crises, and a local prison security team.
The Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect, Pierre-Édouard Colliex, as well as the Tarascon public prosecutor were also on site.
• A man incarcerated since 2015
The hostage taker is a man incarcerated since 2015 for rape at gunpoint. He was to be released from 2031.
If he was initially presented as a detainee with an unstable psychiatric profile, the public prosecutor emphasizes that there do not seem to have been “psychotic elements”. An expertise should be held over the next few hours.
The people held hostage were threatened with a bladed weapon that he had made himself with metal spikes. “It could have been extremely dangerous,” underlines the police chief.
• A desire to change prison
During his previous years of detention, the hostage taker was also known for acts of violence. He had already been convicted “several times” for acts of violence or theft aggravated by acts of violence, said Laurent Gumbau, public prosecutor of Tarascon.
The police chief also explained that the detainee’s thoughts turned out to be quite “incoherent” but that the hostage-taking occurred because of his desire to “get out of prison”. The prosecutor specified that the detainee had apparently expressed his wish to change penitentiary establishment. “That seems to be the determining motive,” he explains.
The motive must, however, be precisely determined during the hostage-taker’s custody, which could last up to 48 hours.
