Paris post office gunman arrested, hostages freed: police

Foreign news agency says incident not deemed terrorist-related

PARIS: An armed man has taken several hostages at a post office northwest of Paris, French media reported on Friday, with one TV station saying the incident was not a suspected terrorist act.

Newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde, both citing an AFP news agency dispatch based on police sources, reported that a man equipped with a military weapon had taken an unconfirmed number of hostages at the post office in the town of Colombes, not far outside the capital.

BFM TV said two people were being held hostage and that the incident was not deemed terrorist-related.

Police sources said several post office clients had managed to escape and that the gunman himself had called them. The sources said he was "speaking incoherently" and was heavily armed with grenades and Kalashnikovs.

The area around the post office in Colombes, a city northwest of Paris, had been cordoned off, with a helicopter flying overhead and elite security forces on the ground.

On January 9, hooded gunmen stormed the Paris offices of weekly satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo,  killing at least 12 people including two police officers in the worst militant attack on French soil in recent decades.

Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) is well  known for courting controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders.

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly