The hostage taking in progress since the end of the morning at Arles prison, in the south of France, ended without injuries, the inmate who was holding five people in the medical unit having surrendered, we learned from a police source.
“The hostage taker surrendered. No injuries,” indicated the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters. The release of the hostages “safe and sound” had been announced a few moments earlier to AFP on site by a union representative.
“The hostage situation is over, the officers and staff are safe, the detainee has surrendered [après] the intervention of RAID negotiators [l’unité d’élite de la police française]“, Jessy Zagari, national delegate of FO Justice, told AFP.
“The hostage taker from the Arles central house was arrested immediately. No injuries. Thank you to the prison administration teams and the RAID police officers for their intervention,” Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin said on X.
Five people in total, four medical employees and a supervisor, were taken hostage shortly after 10 a.m. GMT in the health unit of Arles prison by an inmate known a priori to have “significant psychiatric disorders”, according to a close source. of the file.
He was armed with a homemade pick.
A first hostage, a doctor, was freed at 1:30 p.m. GMT.
Aged 37, the detainee, with an “unstable” profile according to several sources, is incarcerated for rape at gunpoint. He expressed his desire to be changed prison, said a source close to the matter.
Released in 2031, the inmate presents “a psychological profile, not a terrorist profile or anything else,” a prison source told AFP.
