Dozens of police officers converged on a street in central Paris on Tuesday after an armed man took hostages, police sources said. The man was "armed and holding at least two people," a source told AFP, adding that "the situation is quite confused", but did not appear to be terrorism-related.
"Based on our initial investigations it could be a mentally unstable person whose motivations are still unclear," another source said.
A spokesman for France's BRI intervention brigade said negotiations with the man were underway.