French police say kid playing with toy gun in Lille triggered Kalashnikov false alarm

REUTERS

Kalashnikov false alarm
An armed French policeman secures the scene at the raid zone in Saint-Denis, near Paris, France, November 18, 2015 to catch fugitives from Friday night's deadly attacks in the French capital. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

French police said on Thursday suspicions that a man had been walking around the northern city of Lille with a Kalashnikov assault rifle turned out to be a false alarm, and that instead it had been a seven-year-old boy playing with a toy weapon.

Train traffic resumed after a police operation triggered by the initial reports momentarily paralysed the city center.

Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro, Dominique Vidalon; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Richard Lough, William Maclean