Hostage crisis unfolds at family restaurant on outskirts of Paris

CAIRO – 16 November 2024: A tense hostage situation gripped a pizzeria in the suburban town of Issy-les-Moulineaux, just outside Paris, as a seemingly disturbed man took several employees captive inside his father's restaurant on Saturday.

The police, responding to reports of a man armed with a knife, quickly surrounded the establishment where the man had barricaded himself with "three or four employees," a police source told AFP.

Fortunately, no customers or bystanders were among the hostages, providing some relief amid the unfolding crisis.

As authorities cordoned off the area and a mediator was dispatched to the scene, a large presence of police vehicles and ambulances descended upon the location.

The suspect reportedly reached out to his mother for cocaine before she is thought to have alerted the police. According to Le Parisien, the man has a history of drug-related offenses and violent behavior.

In a statement released by the restaurant's management, it was confirmed that the hostages were all employees and that the man was expressing suicidal tendencies.