France hostage taker wants Paris attack suspect freed - BFM TV

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Fri, 23 Mar 2018 - 12:43 GMT

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Fri, 23 Mar 2018 - 12:43 GMT

French police gather outside a local police station in Paris, France, October 11, 2016, after a Molotov cocktail attack over the weekend near Paris that injured their colleagues - REUTERS/Charles Platiau

French police gather outside a local police station in Paris, France, October 11, 2016, after a Molotov cocktail attack over the weekend near Paris that injured their colleagues - REUTERS/Charles Platiau

PARIS - 23 March 2018: A hostage taker in southern France has asked for the release of Paris November 2015 attacker Salah Abdeslam, BFM TV said, citing an anonymous source.

Abdeslam is the prime surviving suspect in the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

A man holding hostages in a supermarket in southwestern France has claimed allegiance to Islamic State, BFM TV said.

Europe 1 radio also said an individual was holding hostages in the supermarket.

Earlier, France's Interior Ministry had said security officials were carrying out an operation at a supermarket in town of Trebes in southern France, but gave no details.

The hostage-taking ongoing in the southwestern France town of Trebes seems to be a "terrorist act," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told reporters on Friday.

"The hostage situation is ongoing. The operation is not over," Philippe said during a visit to Mulhouse. "All the information we have as I speak lead us to think that this would be a terrorist act."

Philippe also said that one police officer had been injured but that his life was not in danger.

BFM TV has said the hostage-taker claimed allegiance to Islamic State. Philippe did not mention that.

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