Hostage-taker arrested and hostages freed after hole-up in Paris

A hostage-taker has been arrested and his hostages freed, some four hours after holing up in a building in Paris.

French interior minister Gerard Collomb tweeted the news ending the drama in a ground-floor office in a crowded neighbourhood of the French capital.

Police earlier reported a man holding two people hostage in an office but there was no indication of terrorist motives.

Videos and images from the scene posted on social media showed police outside a building in central Paris’s Petites Ecuries street.