An armed man who took six people hostage in a bank in the northern French port town of Le Havre on Thursday surrendered to police hours later and after releasing his captives, a witness and police union official said, reports FRANCE 24.
The union official said no weapons were used in the arrest of the man, who had released several of the hostages he was holding over the course of Thursday evening.
Bomb squad officers had arrived at the bank, a senior police union official said earlier.
The official, who was in regular contact with officers involved in the operation, said there was a bag possibly containing explosives at the scene.
A police representative said the hostage-taker was a 34-year-old man with a history of mental health problems. The man's weapon was a handgun, police said.
Two police union sources said the gunman was believed to have Islamist ties.
One union source said the hostage-taker was known to law enforcement authorities and was on a security service watch list.
"We know that he has been radicalised and suffers a serious psychiatric illness," Yves Lefebvre, head of the SGP Unite police union told Reuters.
A highly-placed police source said the man holding the hostages had made statements in support of the Palestinian cause.