Manhunt for gunmen after Paris Primark store robbed

A group of gunmen broke into a discount clothing store near Paris yesterday, trapping 18 people inside for hours, before fleeing and prompting a manhunt throughout the area, police said.

All 18 people were safely evacuated from the Primark clothes store in a shopping center in the town of Villeneuve-la-Garenne, according to a regional police official.

She said police were last night pursuing the assailants.

Police swiftly surrounded the sprawling shopping centre and cordoned off the neighbourhood, adjacent to the Seine River about 10km north of central Paris.

The assailants entered the store around 6.30am in what police believe was an attempted robbery, another police official said.

Several people, primarily store employees, were already inside.

The officials were not authorised to be publicly named.

Officers from a special police unit entered the store, and a few officers emerged later, accompanying women reported to be store employees, according to images broadcast on BFM television.

There was no immediate sign last night of a political or other motive for the robbery.

The Paris region remains on high alert after Islamic extremists attacked a kosher supermarket and satirical newspaper offices in January, leaving 20 people dead, including the attackers.