LIDL supermarket hostage drama ends well in Paris

Six supermarket employees were taken hostage by armed robbers in a store near Paris yesterday before being released unharmed and their two captors detained, police said.

Some 200 police deployed around the LIDL discount store in an industrial zone in Sevran north of Paris after it was attacked just before 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) by thieves who took five women and a man hostage.

One of the attackers, a 25-year-old man, was armed with a automatic pistol and a canister of tear gas, said the police prefecture in nearby Sevran.

But the Paris management of the German supermarket chain confirmed none of the hostages had been hurt.

"All the hostages have been freed. They were not harmed, they are being cared for by the police officers who negotiated with the hostage-takers," said Michel Lemble, LIDL France's head of human resources.

Some 200 riot police, gendarmes, plain-clothes officers and hostage-negotiation experts were deployed at the scene, backed by a helicopter.

One suspected hostage-taker surrendered after three hours of negotiations, the prefecture said.

Armed police sent in to search the store found an accomplice hiding inside, the prefecture added. Police officials had earlier said two accomplices were arrested.

An AFP photographer earlier saw two people emerging from the LIDL store, with their hands in the air before being searched and handcuffed by police. But one of the two now appears to have been a hostage, not a suspect.

There were no customers inside the supermarket at the time of the attack, which took place before opening hours, Mr Lemble said.

The hostages were five store workers and an employee from an outside cleaning firm, Mr Lemble said.

Three women hostages were released mid-morning as police teams negotiated with their captors.

Two were set free in a second wave, leaving only the store manager, a woman, in the hands of the hostage-takers.

She was released after three hours in captivity, Mr Lemble said.

No shots were fired on either side, according to police union official Christophe Ragondet.