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.
Armed police take up their positions near a post office where an armed man is holed up with two hostages in a Paris suburb.
A police helicopter was seen above Colombes as authorities responded to the hostage situation. Two people were reportedly being held hostage and that the incident was not deemed terrorist-related.
Tweeps posted pictures of the Paris suburb where the alleged hostage-taking is in progress.
Police and firefighters surround the building in Colombes, around seven miles from the centre of Paris.
The reportedly claimed to be armed with a Kalashnikov and grenades.
Police have surrounded the building in Colombes, around seven miles from the centre of the French capital. A helicopter was flying overhead.
Media report also said the man had phoned police in Colombes on Friday, confirming that he had taken hostages in a post office on 158 boulevard du general de Gaulle.
A woman watches the siege unfold. It is not known if the hostage-taking is linked to last week's terror attacks
Two hostages are understood to have already been released.
The suspect, who reportedly named himself to police, is known to the authorities for minor crimes, according to RTL.
Closing in: The gunman reportedly phoned police to confirm he had taken hostages in the post office on 158 boulevard du general de Gaulle
BFM TV, citing an unidentified source, said the hostage taking was not related to last week's attacks in Paris.
A police official said meanwhile: "I cannot confirm or deny whether it is linked to terrorism."
Game over: The suspected hostage-taker emerges from the post office with his hands up as police in riot gear train their weapons on him
It is not known if the siege is linked to last week's terror attacks.
The district of Colombes is close to where one of the brothers behind the Charlie Hebdo massacre lived.
Police detail the suspect in a hostage-taking situation outside the post office in Colombes, Paris
A man who holed up in a post office in a suburb northwest of Paris with two hostages on Friday surrendered. Police said he was “speaking incoherently” and was heavily armed with grenades and Kalashnikovs.
It comes as Belgian authorities raided an Islamist cell planning attacks against police as dozens of people were arrested in sweeps across Europe, keeping the continent on alert one week after the Paris massacres.
Two suspected jihadists were shot dead in a police raid in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers last night night.
Prosecutors said 13 suspects had been detained across Belgium, with two more held in France.
French police separately detained 12 people in the suburbs of Paris in connection with last week's attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman, in which 17 people were killed.
Hundreds of German police meanwhile raided alleged Islamist sites in Berlin, arresting two men suspected of being part of a group planning to carry out an attack in Syria.
The raids highlighted fears about young Europeans travelling to fight with the Islamic State and Al Qaeda-linked groups in the Middle East before returning to carry out attacks on western target
