An inmate took five staff hostage at a prison in the southern French city of Arles on Friday, police and prison service sources told AFP.

The prisoner armed with a handmade shank had been holding four nurses and one prison guard in the infirmary since around 11:15 am (1015 GMT), the prison service source said.

Multiple sources said the 37-year-old hostage-taker, serving a sentence for armed rape, suffered from “significant psychiatric disturbances”.

The prison service source added that he did not have the “profile of a terrorist”.

The inmate was demanding to be moved to a different prison, a source familiar with the case said, adding that “the situation remains calm”.

Police response forces including the elite RAID unit were on the scene.

“We’ve mobilised all our resources” to end the stand-off, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, adding that he was “following the development of the situation in real-time”.

The man is set to remain in jail until 2031, the source familiar with the case said. (Courtesy, excluding headline, AFP)