French police on Monday arrested a young man who had taken some 20 kindergarten kids hostage in an eastern city before releasing all of them.

Policemen set a security perimeter around the Charles-Fourier nursery school in Besancon, eastern France, where a man was holding children hostage on December 13, 2010. [Xinhua/AFP]

All the children had been released and they were sound and safe, said French Education Minister Luc Chatel at the site in Besancon, while applauding the calmness of their teacher who had accompanied the kids in captivity.

The motivation behind the incident was unknown yet. Local media said that the 17-year-old kidnapper showed obvious signs of psychiatric problems when negotiating with the police and that he once demanded a gun to commit suicide.

According to Besancon mayor Jean-Louis Fousseret, the kidnapping happened around 8:30 a.m. local time when the young man, armed with two sabres, appeared in the kindergarten, and all the kids were between 4 and 6.

The kidnapper freed some kids when police surrounded the building. Local media reported that when police entered the kindergarten, the abductor still kept five children hostage.

An eyewitness told Xinhua that medical workers entered the building after police announced the arrest, yet there were no reports of injuries.