Gunmen were holed up inside a Primark store near Paris Monday with some ten people inside after what appears to be an attempt to rob the shop, police said, adding special forces had been dispatched to the scene.

"Around 6:30 am (0530 GMT), two or three armed criminals went into the Primark store for what we think was initially an attempt at armed robbery," a police source, who wished to remain anonymous, said of the incident at Villeneuve-la-Garenne.