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Primark workers trapped inside Paris shop after 'robbery goes wrong' Paris Primark robbery: Three gunmen 'with sawn-off shotguns' on the run after 18 people escape botched hold-up
(35 minutes later)
Three gunmen with sawn-off shotguns are reportedly holding up to 18 shop workers hostage in a Primark discount store in a Paris suburb. Eighteen shop workers have escaped unharmed after being held hostage for four hours by three gunmen brandishing sawn-off shotguns in a Primark store near Paris.
The elite police unit, RAID, has deployed around the store in a shopping centre at Villeneuve-la-Garenne, near the La Defense office district just west of Paris. The incident, which is thought to have been a botched robbery attempt, began at around 6.30am when three men entered the store, one of 169 shops in the Qwartz shopping centre beside the river Seine in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, just west of Paris.
After initial reports said 10 men were being held, police sources have now confirmed up to 18 people are inside the store in what appears to have been a failed robbery attempt. Police said the 18 shop-workers – not all of them Primark employees – are believed to have taken refuge in the centre's staff canteen.
They said that it remains unclear if the gunmen are still present or had managed to flee. After surrounding the centre for several hours, police from the elite RAID unit were contacted by text by one of the shop-workers and told that the three attackers appeared to have left the sceme.
A deliveryman said he had seen people fleeing the Qwartz shopping centre through a loading bay. “Everyone was panicking and shouting ‘they’re armed, they’re armed. Get out of here',” he said. Officers then entered the scene and found that the three gunmen, of whom one is thought to be an employee of the store, had fled.
BREAKING: Gunmen hold up store near #Paris with some 10 people - media citing police http://t.co/BQ8WQYD6lC pic.twitter.com/mPN9UDtGfHBREAKING: Gunmen hold up store near #Paris with some 10 people - media citing police http://t.co/BQ8WQYD6lC pic.twitter.com/mPN9UDtGfH
Le Parisien reported that one of the trio had been identified as an employee of the store. A police spokesman said that the incident was being treated as a robbery attempt and there was no indication of any political or terrorist motive.
A police spokesman said: "This incident appears to have started as an attempted armed robbery". A deliveryman said he had seen people fleeing the shopping centre through a loading bay. “Everyone was panicking and shouting ‘they’re armed, they’re armed. Get out of here',” he said.
The three gunmen entered the store belonging to the Irish-owned Primark group at 6.30am, two hours before the shop was due to open. Ten employees are believed to have been in the shop at that time. One of the shop-workers in the Primark shop raised the alarm about the robbery and hostage-taking by sending a text to a friend, BFM TV reported.
One of the shop-workers in the Primark shop, in the Quartz shopping centre, raised the alarm about the robbery and hostage-taking by sending a text to a friend, BFM TV reported.
Police have added that although 10 staff are unaccounted for, they cannot confirm whether all have been taken hostage.
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