Bomb alert prompts Bonnevoie stand-off

(JB) Residents in a normally sleepy city suburb awoke to find police had closed down the area on Sunday morning.

The officers had surrounded a flat in rue des Pres, in Bonnevoie, and were locked in a stand-off after a man threatened to explode a bomb at the property.

The would-be bomber called the emergency police number shortly before 9am, threatening to take his own life with a bomb.

Police bomb squads filled the streets around the flat, which were closed to traffic. Negotiations continued for several hours without success.

By 12.30pm, officers stormed the home and found no sign of a bomb. The man who had threatened to take his own life was taken to a mental health institution.

The area around the property was reopened to traffic at around 1.30pm.