© Kenzo Tribouillard, AFP | French Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) policemen respond to a hostage crisis at a post office in Colombes on January 16
The hostages were freed before the man, who was equipped with a military weapon, surrendered to police.
“There was no assault, the man surrendered on his own,” a police source told the AFP news agency. The hostages were “shocked but not injured,” the source added.
The relatively short incident raised alarm, coming only days after a string of terror attacks in the Paris region.
Helicopters flew overhead as police set up a security perimetre around the post office in Colombes, a suburb to the northwest of the French capital.
The man entered the building shortly before 1pm local time (1200 GMT), with elite police forces soon surrounding the building.
French media reported that the man is known to security services and contacted the police himself.
“He was a little drunk and it appears he had psychological problems. He didn’t demand money, and it wasn’t a hold up. He asked to see his doctor and for an ambulance,” the source said.
“This had nothing to do with the Charlie Hebdo attacks,” another police source added.
France remains on the highest possible security alert level following last week’s attacks, which started with a massacre at a satirical magazine, and saw 17 people killed at the hands of militant Islamist gunmen over three days.
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