Gunman armed with military weapon takes hostages at post office near Paris but surrenders soon

Colombes: An armed man who earlier took several hostages at a post office northwest of Paris on Friday surrendered with no one hurt, a French police official told Reuters. The man who was heavily armed with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades took an unconfirmed number of hostages at the post office in the town of Colombes, just outside Paris. [caption id=“attachment_2050803” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Paris is still jittery after recent terror attacks left 17 dead. AFP[/caption] “I cannot confirm or deny whether it is linked to terrorism,” an official at the city prosecutor’s office told Reuters earlier, declining to give further details. The area around the post office in Colombes, a city northwest of Paris, had been cordoned off, with a helicopter flying overhead and elite security forces on the ground. BFM TV, citing an unidentified source, said the hostage drama was not related to last week’s attacks in Paris. According to this report, the hostage-taker was “disappointed in love”, local prefecture told Liberation newspaper, adding that the hostage taker is a customer “who lost his head” and speaks of “heartbreak.” Sources told AFP that the man was “speaking incoherently”. The gunman is known to police as a petty crime suspect. 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. The French capital is still jittery after a series of attacks last week by Islamist gunmen left 17 people dead, according to AFP.