Gunman takes seven people hostage in a Paris travel agent

A gunman took seven people hostage at a travel agent in Paris tonight.

Police say that a robber armed with a handgun trapped people in the shop in the south of the French capital.

Anti-terror police responded as well as negotiators ready for a protracted siege, however authorities said just after 9pm local time that those taken captive had now been freed.

The gunman is still on the run, however, sparking a major operation to find him.

‘Intervention under way in an armed robbery. Drivers should avoid the area’, officers tweeted, cordoning off a large area of central Paris around the Massena boulevard in the Porte d’Italie area.

According to reports, the shop has been targeted in the past as wealthy clientele prefer to pay using cash instead of credit card, so there is money on the premises.

Jerome Coumet, the mayor of the 13th arrondissement said: ‘It was an attempt at an armed robbery that went wrong.

‘The police intervened immediately. There are no reports of victims or any damage so far. The police are doing everything to bring the situation under control.’