Massive deployment of law enforcement in Suresnes.
Shortly before 7 p.m., a security perimeter was set up near Place Stalingrad, in the heart of the garden city, where an individual claimed to have taken refuge, with a hostage, in an apartment, a stone's throw from the Théâtre Jean- Villar.
A few minutes earlier, around 6:45 p.m., this same man had called the Saint-Cloud police station.
To the police he spoke to online, he claimed to be equipped with an explosive belt and a handgun.
Threatening, he pretended to have the will to blow everything up.
The man, who also claimed to hold an unconscious young girl, also demanded the presence of the press and the intervention of a Raid negotiator.
Confused, he tried to develop his motives, explaining that he was unhappy with the results of the first round of the presidential election and very worried about the outcome of the second.
Taken very seriously, these threats provoked the rapid intervention of police officers from the local police station, men from security and intervention companies and Raid police officers.
Several streets in the neighborhood were blocked, the time for the police to locate the apartment of the supposed madman.
For nothing.
The call indeed turned out to be a “swatting”, a telephone prank which consists of trapping police services by sending them to a false event.
All of this, of course, while remaining anonymous.
The checks completed, the police lifted the security perimeter, under the amazed gaze of the residents, after nearly an hour spent on the spot.
In the evening, the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture announced that a complaint would be filed.