Up to half-a-dozen children were being held hostage by a 17-year-old youth armed with two swords at a nursery school in the eastern French city of Besancon, the city’s mayor said on Monday.
The young man took about 20 children hostage shortly after the kindergarten opened, but later released a dozen or so.
“Around 14 children have come out and at the moment there are five or six still inside,” Besancon Mayor Jean-Louis Fousseret told France Info radio.
The hostage-taker’s motive was unclear, but French media said he was known to suffer from depression. — Reuters