Hostage drama ends peacefully at French school

SABLE-SUR-SARTHE, France, Mar 9 (Reuters) A depressed and unemployed teacher gave himself up to police after taking 20 pupils and three adults hostage today at a school in western France, a police official said.

There was no word of any casualties in the hostage drama, which ended quietly midway through this evening, a few hours after it began.

The 33-year-old man had barricaded the pupils aged 17 and 18, a teacher and two other adults into a classroom, and demanded to talk to the media and former Education Minister Francois Fillon about his inability to find work.

''It's over,'' said Prefect Stephane Bouillon, the top local government official in Sable-sur-Sarthe, 220 km (140 miles) southwest of Paris. ''There was no violence.'' Reuters AD VP0243