Gunmen cause scare at retail store near Paris

VILLENEUVE-LA-GARENNE, France -- A group of gunmen broke into a discount clothing store near Paris on Monday, 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 store in a shopping center in the town of Villeneuve-la-Garenne, according to a regional police official. She said police are now pursuing the assailants.

Police surrounded the sprawling shopping center and cordoned off the neighborhood, adjacent to the Seine River about 6 miles north of central Paris.

The assailants entered the store around 6:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. EDT) Monday in what police believe was an attempted robbery, another police official said. Several people were already inside, primarily employees.

The officials weren't authorized 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 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.