An unemployed former school teacher has taken 20 former students and three adults hostage at a high school in the western French town of Sable-sur-Sarthe. One of the three adults has been identified as a teacher at the school, the other two are school employees.
All other students were evacuated from Colbert de Torcy High School after the 33-year-old former teacher barricaded himself and his hostages inside a classroom. The student hostages are all between the ages of 17 and 18.
The man was believed to be holding a hand gun. Eyewitnesses say that the hostage taker was allowed into the school because school officials knew him.
Local police have surrounded the school. Bernadette Mercier, a school receptionist, told the Associated Press that the suspect promised not to harm the students.
'The man wants to talk to the press about job problems,' said a local town official on the scene shortly after authorities established contact with the hostage taker. Local officials described him as very depressed since he has been unable to find a job.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is presently on a visit to the French Antilles Islands. Aides say Mr. Sarkozy is monitoring the situation but does not plan to cut short his trip at this time.
