Wednesday, June 20, 2012

French police arrest hostage taker in Toulouse

French police have arrested a man who took hostages in a bank in the southwestern French city of Toulouse today, two police sources said.

The man, who had claimed to be a member of al Qaeda, was arrested after police launched an assault in which he was injured.

The man took the hostages, who included the bank manager, in a branch of French bank CIC around mid-morning and fired a shot after an attempted armed robbery apparently went wrong, UNSA police union official Cedric Delage said.

Toulouse, a university town which does not have a reputation as a hotbed of religious or militant tension, has been hit in recent weeks with a number of short-lived hostage situations, including a drama last week at a local weather forecasting office, but none resulted in casualties.

Anti-terrorist police brought in from the nearby cities of Bordeaux and Marseille were at the scene and the area was sealed off.

A bomb disposal team was also sent after the man told them he had explosives.