French school hostage taking ends without incident

An armed man Tuesday took a parent hostage at a French school in a southeastern Paris suburb but released his captive after negotiations and was then arrested by police, a police source said. The incident in Vitry-sur-Seine started at around 0500 GMT when three children and five adults, including two parents, were in the school, which is being used as a leisure centre during the holidays, police said. All children and adults except for one parent quickly left the school, a judicial source said, denying reports that any children had been briefly taken hostage. The hostage was released safe and sound. "The hostage was freed by the (elite police unit) RAID. Negotiations continued with the hostage taker. He came out of the site around five minutes ago and was detained by RAID police. He is uninjured," local prefect Pierre Dartout told journalists. A judicial source said the man had "made incoherent statements and expressed a desire to die", during negotiations, adding that the hostage taker had "at no point been threatening" with the parent held captive. Police union representative Ludovic Monnier described the man as around 30 years old and of African origin. Fellow police union representative Ludovic Magne told journalists the man asked to be "killed by police" and had two handguns. Around 100 people were evacuated from the neighbourhood during the hostage taking, a police source said, asking not to be named.