Three people were killed and five others wounded today when a robber - dressed as a woman - shot his way out of a bank outside Paris as a large number of armed police surrounded the area.
As evening fell, a manhunt was under way in nearby parkland for the man, who managed to escape by shooting a passing driver and stealing his car.
Police were alerted to the hold-up in progress at the bank, situated in a big shopping centre in the northwestern Paris suburb of Cergy-Pontoise, when regular customers found the bank's doors locked during business hours.
Around a dozen people inside the bank were being held hostage by the gunman, who entered just after the Caisse d'Epargne bank opened.
Police moved in and the shooting started, but the details of what happened - and whether the victims were shot by the robber or by police - were not immediately clear. It was not known, either, whether the robber made off with any money.
Inside the bank, the bank manager and one of his staff members were shot dead, while two clients were wounded.
The gunman apparently left the bank with two hostages and in a carpark outside, desperately sought a vehicle to escape pursuing police, shooting and wounding the owner of a Citroen car before stealing the vehicle.
The two hostages then managed to escape, although two passers-by were wounded in an exchange of fire between the gunman and police.
Apparently dissatisfied with his getaway car, the robber tried to steal a Range Rover, shooting dead the owner of the car as he resisted giving up his car to the robber.
Police chased the car for a distance, but were eventually shaken off.
AFP