French police seek 3 suspects after brazen Paris bank raid

Police were hunting for three men who held up a bank just off Paris' Champs-Elysees avenue Tuesday, tying up staff and customers for hours while ransacking safety deposit boxes, officials said.

The armed men rushed into the Milleis bank at around 8:30 am (0730 GMT) shortly after it opened, immobilising several people and spraying them with an unidentified liquid.

They rifled through some 30 safe-deposit boxes, a source close to the investigation said on condition of anonymity.

Formerly called Barclays France, the bank boasts high-end clients, and its Champs-Elysees branch is only around 650 metres (710 yards) from the French presidential palace.

The robbers "took a number of hostages amongst employees when the bank opened. They then put up a sign on the door saying the bank was closed," Eddy Sid, a spokesman for the FO police union, told BFM television.

"They then forced open some deposit boxes. Once that was done they left the employees in the bank -- and they were able to free ...