Alledged 'Al Qaeda Militant' ex - psychiatric patient Takes four Hostages in Toulouse Bank

Alledged 'Al Qaeda Militant' ex - psychiatric patient"Takes four Hostages in Toulouse Bank.(CNBC).AP - A man who said he was a member of al Qaeda and armed with explosives was holding several people hostage in a bank in the southwestern French city of Toulouse on Wednesday, police said. He released one of the hostages in exchange for food and water in the early afternoon. The man took the hostages, who included the bank manager, in a branch of French bank CIC around mid-morning and fired a shot after an attempted armed robbery apparently went wrong, UNSA police union official Cedric Delage said. A second shot was fired in mid-afternoon, according to two police sources. "The man has made clear that he is not acting for money, but for religious reasons," Prosecutor Michel Valet told reporters. A police official in Toulouse says one of the hostages, a woman, has been released. The official says negotiations are under way with the hostage-taker. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the subject.The hostage-taker asked for the elite RAID commando unit to come to the scene - the same squad which shot dead 23-year-old gunman Mohammed Merah in March after a long standoff at his home, which was just meters from the site of Wednesday's siege.A police source said police had identified the hostage-taker and brought in a person who knew him to help with negotiations. The source said the suspect had a name of North African origin and had spent time in a psychiatric hospital.Hmmm... he is not acting for money, but for religious reasons......Now what religion might that be?Read the full story here.More here.