A hostage-taking took place this Friday in Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône), Le Parisien learned from corroborating sources confirming information from La Provence. The hostage taker was finally arrested, announced the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin at 3:50 p.m. He surrendered, said a police source. No injuries were reported.
According to our information, the man was until now still holding three people, three doctors and a prison guard. A doctor had been released a little earlier. “The hostages are fine, physically. They were not injured, but five hours of hostage-taking can leave trauma,” indicated the Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect, Pierre-Édouard Colliex.
The detainee, aged 37, held these people under threat of “homemade picks”, according to our information. The Raid, a specialized intervention unit of the national police, had been activated.
A “very impulsive” and “violent” inmate
The perpetrator of the hostage-taking is incarcerated for acts of rape at gunpoint, according to a judicial source. Released in 2031, the inmate is described as “very impulsive” and “violent”. He has already had “problems with violence in detention” at Saint-Maur prison (Indre), according to a prison source. He does not present “a terrorist profile”.
The hostage-taking would have occurred after the thirty-year-old’s discontent following the refusal of his transfer to another detention center. “This inmate seemed to demonstrate a motive for changing establishment,” confirmed Laurent Gumbau, public prosecutor of Tarascon, during a press briefing.
The Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, confirmed the hostage-taking on X, ensuring that “all means” were “mobilized” to “deal with it”. “I am following the evolution of the situation in real time,” he added. It was on this same platform that he announced the end of the event. “Thank you to the prison administration teams and the Raid police officers for their intervention,” he said.
