A man has been arrested after two women were taken hostage at knifepoint in Paris. The incident took place a hardware shop in the city's 12th arrondissement on Monday afternoon. One of the women was later released but negotiations to free the second woman continued into Monday night. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmnin tweeted on Tuesday morning that a man had been arrested. "There are no injuries," he wrote. "Thanks to the agents of the @prefpolice and in particular the French Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI)." A terrorist motive for the incident was ruled out by officers. Europe 1 reported that the alleged hostage-taker is believed to be a 56-year-old Tunisian man with mental health issues. He is understood to have told negotiators that he wanted to speak to the French Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti. He also met, at his request, with Sylvie Noachovitch, the lawyer of former gardener Omar Raddad, convicted in 1994 of the murder of a rich widow, Ghislaine Marchal, in Mougins, south-eastern France. "He admires her a lot and thinks she is a very good lawyer," a source close to the investigation told AFP.
