(CBS/AP) TOULOUSE, France - A French police official says a man has taken hostages in a bank in the southern city of Toulouse and fired a shot.
A police union official told the Reuters news network that the man claims to be linked to al Qaeda, but that report could not be immediately confirmed. Other reports cited a police union official as saying it could be a case of a bank robbery gone wrong.
The surrounding area was cordoned off and a nearby school evacuated.No injuries were immediately reported. It is unclear how many hostageswere held, but reports suggested as many as four people, possibly including the bank manager and staff, were inside.
A GIPN van (French National Police Intervention Group) seen in a March 2012 file photo in Toulouse, southwestern France.
(Credit: Getty)The neighborhood around the CIC bank is cordoned off. Toulouse was the site of a rampage against a Jewish school in March that left four dead. Police say the shooter was Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old who claimed allegiance to al Qaeda.
The bank branch where the hostage taker was holed up is very close to the apartment block where Merah eventually fell to his death from a balcony following a police raid by an elite squad known as the French National Police Intervention Group (GIPN).
French media reported Wednesday that the bank hostage taker had asked for a GIPN team to respond to the scene.
