WHAT started as a violent raid on a house in France claimed five, lives but came to a peaceful end last night when a lone gunman freed his two female hostages and, surrendered to police in Kortrijk, Belgium.
It was near Lille that the saga began, when police - investigating the discovery of a car bomb outside the police headquarters in the northern city - mounted an assault on a house in Roubaix city.
In a shootout and fire that ensued, three Moroccans and an Algerian were killed, and two police officers wounded.
Two accomplices managed to escape into Belgium - where one of them, a French national, Christophe Caze, was shot and killed by police after a high speed chase on a highway about 20 km from Roubaix.
The remaining suspect wounded, took refuge in a house near the highway and took its occupants - Ms Mia Stoohant (40) the wife of a local doctor, and her household helper, Ms Karine Ameye - hostage.
The stand off that followed lasted several hours, before police were able to arrest the suspect and free the women.
The raid in Roubaix that launched the chain of events was targeted on the suspected lair of a gang responsible for a string of armed criminal acts that have left one dead and several wounded in recent weeks in the Lille area.
Police were planning a raid for some time, but decided to pounce yesterday after discovering the car bomb - similar to vehicles used by the gang in the operations - packed with explosives and gas canisters.
The French Interior Minister, Mr Jean Louis Debre, discounted any link between the gang and sensational attacks last year in France by Islamic extremists, saying "grand banditry" was involved this time.
Investigators stressed that, three days before President Jacques Chirac opens the G7 meeting at the Grand Palais in Lille, not far from police headquarters, security would not be lax.
The four killed in Roubauix were all residents of the town. They were identified as Omar Zemiri, who rented the house that was raided, Rachid Soudini and Said al Laihar, all natives of Morocco, and Tesli Ben Hachem, born in Algeria.
Hundreds of rounds of gunfire were expended, and grenades thrown. Automatic gunfire was also involved, investigators said. The house which went up in flames was in the Alma Gare district of Roubaix, home to a large number of immigrants.
One of the suspects was killed after having wounded two police officers, and it appeared that the others who died with him perished in the flames that engulfed the house.