French police said on Sunday they had arrested a robber after a bank hold-up which left three people dead and five wounded in a Paris suburb at the weekend.
The Chadian-born man of French nationality, aged 27, was arrested at 6.00 am (0400 GMT) at his girlfriend's house in Persan-Beaumont.
Persan is around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the scene of the hold-up at Cergy-Pontoise, northwest of the capital.
The man was traced because he was injured and took a taxi to make his way back to Persan, the local prosecutor in Pontoise told a press conference.
The gunman -- dressed in women's clothing with a wig and make-up -- broke into a bank in a big shopping center in Cergy-Pontoise on Saturday morning and took about a dozen people hostage inside.
Police were alerted to the hold-up when regular customers found the doors of the Caisse d'Epargne bank locked during business hours and noted suspicious movements inside.
Large numbers of armed police surrounded the bank and evacuated the Trois Fontaines commercial center.
Bank manager Patrick Prieur and one of his staff were apparently shot dead early on in the attack in circumstances that are still unclear, the source added. Two bank customers were wounded.
Despite the police cordon, the gunman managed to flee the bank with two hostages and, desperately seeking a vehicle to escape pursuing police, shot and wounded the owner of a Citroen ZX before stealing his car.
The two hostages managed to escape but two passers-by were wounded in an exchange of fire between the gunman and police.
The robber then tried to steal a Rover on the outskirts of Cergy-Pontoise, shooting the driver dead when he resisted handing over the vehicle. He eventually gave up and fled in the Citroen.
Police chased the car for a distance but were shaken off.
Some 150 police officers were involved in the search for the gunman, setting up roadblocks around Cergy-Pointoise on Saturday and searching the nearby Cergy-Neuville leisure center where he was reported seen on Sunday.
The wounded were rushed to hospital, while the other witnesses were taken for counseling for shock.
The drama highlighted an increase in the number of armed robberies in and around Paris.
Police covering Paris's tough northern suburbs told AFP on Saturday there were around five armed hold-ups per week during the summer and around 20 per week in winter.
Heavy security meant banks were targeted less and less but "softer" establishments such as supermarkets and restaurants were being hit more often, they said.
On August 1, the government released figures showing crime had risen 9.6 percent throughout France in the first half of 2001, while Paris police reported a 7.2-percent increase in the capital for the same six-month period -- PARIS (AFP)
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