MASS PANIC
A PARIS shopping centre was evacuated and a train station closed this morning after false reports of a gunman on the loose.
Police were called to the Westfield Les 4 Temps centre in the city's business district at around 10am following reported sightings of a man in the area carrying a "long gun".
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Police evacuated the centre and closed the nearby La Défense - Grande Arche metro station while a search of the area was conducted.
But officers were told to stand down after a two-hour search failed to find any suspect.
A tweet from Paris police read: "The search of the location has ended. The cordon will be lifted.
"At this stage, no suspect or individual has been identified by police at the scene [who would corroborate] the report made earlier today."
The shopping centre, metro station, and offices in the surrounding area have now been reopened.
Shoppers and workers will also now be able to move freely around the district again.
Footage earlier showed people walking past police lines with their arms raised as officers carried out searches and queueing on the station's stairways.
There were also reports that helicopters and police vans could be seen outside.
Writing on twitter, one witness said: "Everything is cordoned off and there are anti-terrorist police cars on the esplanade.
"We are safe. We are just waiting inside the station."
One man stuck inside the station told Mirror Online there were "a lot of police" around and that "apparently there is an armed guy at La Defense".
A post on the official twitter account of the Paris Police Department asked people not to move round the area while police carried out a search.
La Defense is Paris's main business district and is located around two miles west of the city centre.
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The area around La Grande Arche de la Defense, a large square monument in the centre of the district, has also been closed.
Westfield Les 4 Temps hosts around 230 shops and is one of the busiest shopping hubs in Paris.
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