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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 13 June 2018

Paris hostages freed, suspect arrested after 4 hours

By ELAINE GANLEY The hostages were held in
Associated Press a ground-floor office in a
PARIS (AP) — A four-hour crowded neighborhood.
hostage standoff in cen- Their captor apparently
tral Paris ended with po- was armed with knives.
lice moving in, arresting As negotiations progressed,
the armed suspect and the hostage-taker report-
freeing the people held edly asked to speak to
in a ground-floor office, the Iranian ambassador, a
France's interior minister an- police union official, Yves
nounced late Tuesday. Lefebvre, said. However,
"All the hostages are safe a motive for the demand
and sound," Gerard Col- was not established.
lomb said in a brief state- Iran's semi-official ISNA
ment. At least two people news agency reported
had been held. that a spokesman for Iran's
There was no indication of Foreign Ministry, Bahram
an extremist motive, police Ghasemi, said the Iranian
said. Embassy in Paris stood
The Paris prosecutor's of- ready to help "considering
fice detained the suspect, the importance of people's
a 26-year-old man born in lives and human aspects of
Morocco, a judicial official the issue."
said. It was not immediately During the negotiations,
clear if he had French na- the hostage-taker report-
tionality. This handout picture taken Tuesday, June 12, 2018 and provided by Jean-Baptiste Chaumie shows edly evoked a strange mix
The man is being investi- police officers at the scene of an hostage-taking in Paris, France. of events, from the Sept. 11
gated on multiple counts, Associated Press attack on the World Trade
including kidnapping and Center to the kidnapping
sequestration, attempted one who reportedly had tails of the raid by specially building, Le Parisien news- and death last year of
homicide and violence been doused with gaso- trained intervention police paper reported. a young girl in an Alpine
with a weapon, the official line and threatened by the officers four hours after the Dozens of officers in riot town.
said. The official was not hostage-taker with being hostage-taking began at gear, firefighters and res- The hostage-taker also
authorized to discuss an set on fire, French TV news about 4 p.m. cue workers had evacuat- claimed he had an accom-
ongoing investigation and stations BFM-TV and CNews Before the arrest, police ed and blocked off the Rue plice outside the building
asked not to be named. reported. and firefighters sent a wa- des Petites Ecuries while with a bomb, according to
Two hostages were freed, Authorities provided no de- ter-spraying robot into the negotiations took place. union official Lefebvre. q