French police today arrested a man suspected of carrying out a weekend bank hold-up that left three people dead, with one source saying he was a former bank employee who staged the crime in revenge for being sacked.
Parisian authorities arrested Mr Habib Mezaoui in a dawn raid after the hold up the previous day in which six other people were also wounded.
One of the dead, the bank manager, was Mr Mezaoui's former boss according to a source close to the police investigation.
Mr Mezaoui, a 27-year-old Frenchman born in Chad, was arrested at his girlfriend's house in Persan-Beaumont, 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the scene of the robbery in CergyPontoise, northwest of the capital.
Authorities say he was the gunman who - dressed in women's clothing and wearing a wig and makeup - broke into a bank in a large shopping center in Cergy-Pontoise yesterday and took about a dozen people hostage inside the building.
Police highlighted the cold-bloodedness of the heist, pointing out that bank manager Mr Patrick Prieur was apparently shot dead while tied up in his chair. Another of the bank's staff was also shot dead while two bank customers were wounded.
The gunman fled the bank with two hostages and allegedly shot and seriously wounded the owner of a Citroen ZX before stealing his car. The two hostages managed to escape but two passersby were wounded in an exchange of fire between the gunman and police.
The robber then tried to steal a Rover on the outskirts of Cergy-Pontoise, shooting the driver dead when he resisted handing over the vehicle. The wife of the driver was also wounded.
The robber eventually gave up and fled in the Citroen, shaking off pursuing police after a short chase.
A taxi driver who had Mr Mezaoui as a fare late Saturday identified him as the suspect police were searching for and tipped off authorities, a local prosecutor told a news conference.
AFP