PARIS (Reuters) - Elite police cordoned off a school south of Paris on Tuesday after an armed man took an adult hostage.

A police official said the man had entered the premises in Vitry-sur-Seine, on the southern edge of the capital, shortly before opening time and was holed up inside with one hostage, an adult.

Last month, a 26-year-old man with a record of psychological problems was shot and arrested by elite police in Toulouse after taking several hostages and claiming to be a member of al Qaeda.

Toulouse was also the city where an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, 23-year-old Mohamed Merah, was shot dead by police after killing three soldiers, three Jewish children at a school, and a rabbi.

(Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Kevin Liffey)