6Colombes 

Gunman hostage taking in Colombes – a suburb to the northwest of the French capital – ended safely at 1430.  Earlier three hostages were able to escape uninjured.

“There was no assault, the man surrendered on his own,” a police source told the AFP news agency.

Preliminary reports gunman is known to police forces and has a psychiatric history.  Gunman was  armed when he entered the Colombes  post office at 1400 – witnesses say he became agitated.

Daily Telegraph reporter Henry Samuel in a dispatch from Paris says the gunman phoned number 17 [the French emergency number] saying rambling things.” Elite police units quickly surrounded the post office.

It’s said the  gunman was «suite d’une déception sentimentale»  : “disappointed in love.”

The Colombes post office incident comes within a week of jihadist attacks by militant islamist gunmen which  killed 17 people over three days in the French capital.

Colombes : prise d’otages dans un bureau de poste

Prise d’otage à Colombes : le forcené interpellé, les otages libérés

 

Colombes – Paris hostages in post office