On this day in 1993, a two-day hostage crisis at a nursery school in Paris, France, was ended when masked French police commandoes freed six girls and their 30-year-old teacher Ms. Laurence Dreyfus from an unidentified man who, with 16 sticks of dynamite strapped to his body, calling himself The Human Bomb (the same name as a 1940's DC superhero), threatened to blow up the nursery if he was not given $18.5 million dollars.
The police team burst into the room at 7.25am while the man was dozing, covered the children with mattresses so they would not see and shot the man in the head three times with guns fitted with silencers.
It was later determined that the man was 42-year-old Eric Schmitt, an Algerian-born French citizen whose computer company had become bankrupt two years before and who had been made redundant in his last job at an electrical firm.
Originally, there were 21 three and four-year-olds in the classroom but after negotiating with Schmitt, 15 children were released in small groups as chosen by Ms. Dreyfus, who, in keeping the children calm and safe was hailed as a national heroine and awarded France's highest civilian award for bravery - the Legion of Honour.
The title of the newspaper article roughly translated reads: "They have saved the children".
Image available: http://www.lejdd.fr/Medias/Images/Le-Journal-du-Dimanche-a-60-ans/16-mai-1993-Human-Bomb-8901/
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