Paris post office siege: armed man surrenders

An armed man who earlier took several hostages at a post office northwest of Paris on Friday has surrendered with no one hurt, according to French police.

The man equipped with a military weapon took an unconfirmed number of hostages at the post office in the town of Colombes, just outside the capital.

“I cannot confirm or deny whether it is linked to terrorism,” an official at the city prosecutor’s office said earlier, declining to give further details.

BFM TV, citing an unidentified source, said the hostage drama was not related to last week’s attacks in Paris.

French police arrested 12 people earlier on Friday suspected of helping militant Islamist gunmen in last week’s killings in Paris. There have been numerous false alerts across the city since the attacks.

Meanwhile, Belgian police questioned 13 suspects and France held two people on Belgium’s request, a day after two gunmen were killed during raids against an Islamist group that authorities said were planning to attack police.

Officials said there was no clear link between the suspected Belgian plot and the Paris attacks a week earlier, but described them as part of a common threat. “There is a terrorist offensive,” French prime minister Manuel Valls told reporters. “We face the same threat.”

In Germany, police arrested two people following a raid on 12 homes and a mosque. A police spokesman said the suspects were probably part of an extremist cell that recruited fighters for Syria.

Reuters