An armed man was reported in the 16th arrondissement of Paris on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 6. The police were mobilized to find the individual and establishments were temporarily confined.
A district of the 16th arrondissement of Paris was confined this Wednesday, March 6, during the afternoon. The reason ? The search for an armed man seen on the public highway by several people according to testimonies reported by Le Figaro. It was a taxi driver who alerted the police saying he had dropped off two individuals, one of whom “would have been carrying a long gun”, at the Passy station around 3 p.m. Patrols were immediately sent to the scene to find the individual.
The search lasted for many minutes according to witnesses and led to the blocking of several streets. Police sources told the newspaper that “checks were carried out following a report of suspicious individuals”. According to building guards also interviewed by Le Figaro, a man would have taken refuge inside an apartment in one of the buildings in the neighborhood, but the information has not been confirmed by any official source. It was not specified whether any arrests took place during the afternoon.
While law enforcement was searching for the reported armed man, several establishments in the 16th arrondissement neighborhood were placed on lockdown. Students at Saint-Louis de Gonzague high school, known as “Franklin”, were prohibited from leaving the school grounds. Various bars in the area, as well as the pharmacy on Marietta Alboni Street, have been confined or closed. “The device was lifted around 4 p.m.” according to a police source to the newspaper after an hour and a half of confinement for the students of Franklin high school.