Hostage situation at Paris-Area restaurant ends peacefully, suspect arrested

Shafaq News/ A hostage standoff at a restaurant near Paris ended Saturday evening after three hours, with all hostages released unharmed.

According to French media reports, authorities apprehended the suspect, who is now in police custody.

French broadcaster BFM TV reported that the individual, allegedly a drug addict, expressed suicidal intentions during the incident.

The drama unfolded earlier in the day when a knife-wielding man took several employees hostage at his father's pizzeria in Issy-les-Moulineaux, a suburb southwest of Paris.

A police source told AFP that the man was holding "three or four employees" inside the restaurant. The standoff began shortly before 1 p.m., prompting a heavy police deployment and a cordon around the site.

During the incident, Paris police wrote on the social media platform X, “The intervention is ongoing. Let the security forces and emergency services do their work.”