Hostage taking in progress near Paris, a man holed up in a restaurant with “three or four” employees

The owner of a restaurant in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the near Paris suburbs, “is cut off» Saturday in his establishment where he “has a few employees», the Paris fire brigade (BSPP) told AFP.

He locked himself in this restaurant – which belongs to his father – a few dozen meters from the Paris ring road, southwest of the capital, just before 1:00 p.m., this source also indicated.

A “will of suicide”

He remembers “three or four employees“, but there is neither “clientele nor public», Specified the source. A mediator from the BRI (Research and Intervention Brigade, elite unit of the Paris police) is “committed, due to the person concerned’s desire to commit suicide».

He is not known to the courts.

An important security perimeter

A major police force surrounds the restaurant, a pizzeria, AFP journalists noted. A major law enforcement force surrounds the restaurant, a pizzeria, a few dozen meters from the Paris ring road, noted AFP journalists.

On AFPTV images, we can see numerous police vehicles and armed, helmeted law enforcement officers blocking the streets and establishing a security perimeter in the neighborhood.