Police and other security services launched an operation in downtown Toulon on Monday afternoon after an individual threw a box containing a human head out the window of an apartment building.
According to local media, part of the city centre was cordoned off during the operation. Footage from the scene shows uniformed police, machine gun-wielding SWAT, and soldiers in the downtown area, looking up into the windows of a low rise and entering local buildings to secure the area.
Police tweeted that the operation is now over and that one person was arrested by the RAID, an elite tactical unit of the French National Police.
The authorities have yet to provide any information about the detained individual or their possible motives for the crime. The identity of the victim also remains unknown.