Armed with two swords, a 17-year-old male entered the nursery before 9 a.m. and took the teacher and students hostage, saying that he “wanted something,” Besançon Mayor Jean-Louis Fousseret told channel TF1.
There were 20 children in the kindergarten at the beginning of the incident. During the first two hours, the teenager gradually released 15 children between the ages of four and six, according to officials. No children were injured.
The teenager was finally neutralized by a special police unit while he was on the telephone with
the law enforcement. His motive was unclear, but he is said to have a history of psychological problems.
According to the French Education Ministry, the children received medical consultations, as each of them had experienced emotional distress.
The last child hostage situation in France happened in 1993 in the Paris' suburb of Neuilly, when an armed man invaded a class of 21 children and demanded a ransom of about $20 million. Eventually, he was shot dead by the police.
