French Xerox Chief Wounded in Hostage Drama

The chief of Xerox Corp.’s French subsidiary Tuesday was shot and critically wounded at the end of a seven-hour hostage drama in which he and four other employees were held at gunpoint by a former employee, police said.

Olivier Groues, president and chief executive of Rank Xerox France, was reported in critical condition from a gunshot wound to his right side, police said.

Police took the gunman into custody immediately after the shooting in the company’s offices on the top floor of a skyscraper in the La Defense business district on the western outskirts of Paris.

The gunman was identified as Daniel Vielle, 45.

Witnesses told police that Vielle burst into the office of Groues’ deputy, Bernard Reibell, about noon, forcing him at gunpoint to the president’s office and taking three other employees hostage.

Public prosecutor Michelle Requin said Vielle held the employees hostage with a sawed-off rifle while demanding restitution for his dismissal eight years ago.

Vielle, who was dismissed “for serious cause” from Rank Xerox, “had a real fixation against the company, blaming it for his divorce and his debts,” Requin said.

Police surrounded the building and evacuated all the other employees of the company. Members of an elite security force were called in, along with Vielle’s lawyer, officials said.

Requin said she and Jean Trouillet of the local police department began negotiating with Vielle by telephone from an office one floor below.

Vielle demanded $86,000 for each of his three children, she said.

He released three of his hostages, all women, unharmed, after his lawyer was brought into the negotiations.

“The negotiations were continuing when suddenly things took a turn for some unknown reason,” Requin said. “He demanded a car . . . and the possibility of taking his hostages with him toward Paris, still at gunpoint.”

At 7:10 p.m., three shots were fired, police said. Vielle then tried to escape, heading for a stairway where police were waiting, Trouillet said. A fourth shot was fired.

Police said they believed the fourth shot was the one that hit Groues in the abdomen. The bullet became lodged between the base of one of his lungs and his liver.