Shocking: After Charlie Hebdo, another hostage situation in Paris

Paris, Jan 16: A week after attack on Charlie Hebdo, another hostage situation has been occurred in Paris on Friday, Jan 16.

An armed man was holed up in a post office outside Paris with two hostages, police said, though there is no known link with last week's jihadist attacks. Police cordoned off the area in Colombes, a city northwest of Paris, and a helicopter was flying overhead. [Desperate Al-Qaeda's Charlie Hebdo claims lack legitimacy]

According to sources, the gunman is armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, a gun and numerous grenades. Police have begun negotiation with the gunman.

Meanwhile, sources informed that the gunman has been identified as a petty crime suspect. The post office, where the gunman has taken three people as hostages, is situated at Charles-de-Gaulle boulevard.

Paris has been witnessing one of the worst situations as one after another attacks, hostage situations rattled the city. One of the railway stations in Paris was closed and evacuated on Friday following a bomb threat.

The state railway SNCF said the Gare de l'Est rail station was evacuated at 8 am. However, the railways station was reopened about an hour later, said media reports without giving any more details about the bomb threat.

The scare came as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris for a visit in the wake of the terrorist attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week. [France pays the cost of its violence on Muslim countries: Al Qaeda]

Meanwhile, French authorities said that they arrested 12 people suspected of helping a gunman, who killed a policewoman and four hostages at a supermarket in eastern Paris last week.

OneIndia News