This morning, armed gunmen stormed a branch of Primark in north west Paris – trapping 18 workers inside.

Thankfully, the hostages have now all been freed, however, the three gunmen have yet to be captured. 

One of the gunmen is an employee of Primark, local reports state.

When the attacks arrived at the shopping mall a little after 6am local time, the 18 individuals were trapped in a staff canteen, although some of their colleagues were able to escape immediately. 

The hostages "were evacuated around 10.30am, one of them was unwell but no-one was injured," police said this afternoon, though the circumstances of their release are still unclear.

The armed men were seen by CCTV entering the mall but have not been filmed leaving the premises – indicating they are still inside.

One worker told Le Parisien he saw people fleeing in a panic: "Everyone was running and screaming 'they are armed, they are armed, we must get out'."

Paris – and indeed, all of France – remains on high-alert after Islamic extremists attacked and killed 20 at the offices of Charlie Hedbo in January.

And last month as ISIS killed 38 in Tunisia, Yassin Salhi, a French lorry drive with extremist links, decapitated his boss before ramming a vehicle into a chemical plant near Lyon.