4 restaurant hostages in France freed

Four restaurant employees taken hostage in the city of Issy-les-Moulineaux, neighboring Paris, were freed on Saturday afternoon, reported Xinhua, quoting French news channel BFMTV.

According to the news channel, a man with a knife took hostage four employees of his father's restaurant at around 1 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) on Saturday. The man has been arrested.

Police had to deploy a mediator to persuade the man to surrender as he showed "desire to commit suicide," BFMTV said, adding that the hostages were not injured.

BFMTV also noted that the suspect suffers from drug addiction and he had already carried out similar acts.