A hostage crisis near Paris was resolved after police detained a knife-wielding man who took four employees hostage at his parents’ restaurant.

A report published by the AFP news agency late on Saturday (November 16) stated that four employees were released and no one was injured during the operation at the pizzeria in the town of Issy-les-Moulineaux. “The operation is over,” a police source told AFP.

The man locked himself in the restaurant just before 13:00 local time. The hostages were released around 16:00. AFP reported that a large number of police personnel were present at the time, along with police cars and fire trucks.

Police set up a security perimeter around the scene. Several neighboring restaurants were closed.

Representatives of the Search and Response Brigade (BRI), an elite Paris police unit, were dispatched to the scene. A mediator was brought in and negotiations were held before the police intervened.

A source close to the incident told AFP that the man was a drug addict. Meanwhile, the aforementioned police source said that the man committed similar actions at his home in 2022 and threatened to die by suicide.

It was learned that the man, aged 35-40, was not known to the police before.

(With input from institutions)