False alarm: Police clear office block in Paris suburb after reports of armed assailant… and find air-conditioning repair man

Police evacuated an office block belonging to telecommunications company Axione in the Malakoff district of Paris after sightings of an allegedly armed man – but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.

Police were called to the Boulevard Camélinat, in a southern district of the French capital, on Tuesday afternoon, after reports suggested a man had broken into an office belonging to the company.

Footage shared online shows heavily armed police in body armor being deployed to the streets around the building. The road appears to be blocked at either end, and no traffic is passing through.

However, having cleared the building, the police found no gunman. Instead, it is understood that a man employed to repair the company’s air-conditioning units, who was working on the roof at the time, may have been mistaken for an assailant. 

Axione, a French multinational, designs and deploys telecommunications infrastructure around the world.

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