'Al-Qaeda militant' takes hostages at French bank: police

TOULOUSE: A man claiming to be an Al-Qaeda militant took four hostages at a bank in the southern French city Toulouse on Wednesday and wants to negotiate with an elite police unit, police said.

The man fired a gun and wants to talk to the Raid police unit that shot dead Al-Qaeda-inspired gunman Mohamed Merah in March following a siege of his flat in the same city after he went on a killing spree, they said.