Police Seize Sword-Wielding Teen Who Took 20 Tots Hostage

French police stormed a pre-school today and apprehended a sword-wielding 17-year-old who’d taken several small children and their teacher hostage. The teen, armed with a sword in each hand, had initially taken 20 children hostage, but released 13 of them throughout the morning. A fourteenth “more or less escaped,” said the mayor of the town of Besancon. Other classes were evacuated, as police circled the school.

With firearms pointed at the schools windows and doors, officers—who had been talking to the hostage taker by telephone—entered the building around lunchtime, according to the AP. They apprehended the teen, and freed all of the children. It’s unclear what the swashbuckler’s motives were; town officials described him as “unstable.” (More Besancon stories.)