Hostages in French town safe

Police take up position near the scene of a shootout in Roubaix. Photo: Reuters
Police take up position near the scene of a shootout in Roubaix. Photo: Reuters

A hostage situation in the northern French town of Roubaix was apparently not linked to the Paris attacks earlier this month and has ended with the hostages now safe, officials say.

Local authorities said the hostages were now in a "secure place" on Tuesday night (local time).

Frederic Fevre, the prosecutor for the northern French city of Lille, told reporters that one hostage-taker had been killed, and police were hunting for other suspects who were on the run.

Police sources said the Roubaix incident most likely concerned a planned armed robbery, not a terrorist attack.

France remains on high alert after the deadly attacks in and around Paris on Novmember 13 in which 130 people were killed.

As a result of this, situations such as the one in Roubaix have taken on a greater significance than usual.

Roubaix is near the border with Belgium, which as been at the heart of investigations into the Paris attacks since French law enforcement bodies said two of the suicide bombers had lived there.

Three people have been charged in Belgium with terrorist offences. 

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