INFO EUROPE 1 – Hostage prize in Paris: the madman arrested, the second hostage released safe and sound
Louis De Raguenel and William Molinié, with AFP
, modified at
9:28 a.m., December 21, 2021
The police have just put an end to the hostage-taking which took place in a grocery store in the 12th arrondissement of Paris and which began Monday afternoon. Two women were kidnapped by a man known in the district to have mental disorders. Monday, shortly before 10 p.m., one of the hostages was released. The hostage taker was arrested by the police, and the second woman was released unharmed.
Negotiations ended between the hostage taker and the police since the man surrendered Tuesday morning and was arrested by the men of the BRI, calmly. Negotiations had never ceased, moreover, throughout the night from Monday to Tuesday. The second hostage was released safe and sound, and there were no injuries in the operation. The Paris prosecutor’s office is expected to speak on Tuesday. According to a person close to the investigation, Tuesday morning, the prefect of police Didier Lalllement spoke to the madman by phone.
Rue d’Aligre in # Paris12 | The madman has just freed one of the hostages, who is unharmed. Negotiations are still ongoing by the BIS. pic.twitter.com/VH8IOPCtkR
– Police Prefecture (@prefpolice) 20 December 2021
He wouldn’t be a former magistrate
On Monday, the man with a bladed weapon, who had been holding two women since the afternoon in a shop in the 12th arrondissement in Paris, released one of them unharmed, as announced by the police headquarters on Twitter. “The madman has just freed one of the hostages, who is unharmed. Negotiations are still ongoing” with the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI), tweeted the Prefecture of Police.
The author, a 56-year-old man known to have a psychiatric history, entered a bazaar in the rue d’Aligre at around 3:20 p.m., near the Bastille district, where he had taken two women hostage. According to our information, it would not be a former magistrate. If this identity could be evoked at the beginning of the investigation, the doubt was raised because it was about a homonym. Also according to our information, the lawyer Sylvie Noachovitch had been put in touch with the madman to reason with him. The latter has no claim in the Raddad case but he says he only trusts her.
The terrorist trail had been quickly ruled out, according to a police source. An investigation was opened including the head of “kidnapping” and was entrusted to the police station of the 12th arrondissement, confirmed the Paris prosecutor’s office.
>> More information to follow …