Paris attack: Police kill gunmen, freeing hostages

Heavily-armed elite French forces killed two brothers and an ally in a dramatic end to the country's worst terrorist crisis in decades. Three blood-soaked days left 17 people dead, including four hostages killed yesterday as one gunmen stormed a Jewish grocery store. (Videos included)

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This is a fast-breaking story which is being constantly updated by all the major news agencies. This is what we know so far and I'll have more as the news comes in.The latest audio file can be found at the end of the full text.

Saturday

Dramatic, frightening videos of the police assaults on the terrorists, first in Dammartin-en-Goele and then in Paris.

Charlie Hebdo gunmen and ally killed in dramatic siege climax

Paris, Jan 9, 2015, AFP –French elite forces killed the brothers behind the Charlie Hebdo massacre and a jihadist ally Friday in a dramatic finale to three blood-soaked days that left 17 people dead and shook the nation to its core.

Explosions rang out at sunset at two hostage sites around Paris as heavily armed police moved in for a fiery final showdown with gunmen who had kept France gripped with fear since 12 people were slaughtered Wednesday in the offices of the satirical magazine.

On Friday the heavily-armed massacre suspects were cornered in a tiny town northeast of Paris while a third man took terrified shoppers hostage in a Jewish supermarket, where four died and seven were hurt including three police officers.

As the drama reached its climax, chilling links emerged showing the brothers, identified as Cherif and Said Kouachi, and supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly were close allies and had worked together.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Coulibaly had "threatened to kill all the hostages" if police moved in on the Kouachi brothers, and he had said the supermarket was booby-trapped.

The three all had a radical past and were known to French intelligence.

Cherif told French TV he was acting on behalf of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula while Coulibaly said he was a member of the Islamic State group.

Coulibaly's girlfriend Hayat Boumeddiene, who was wanted by police in connection to the killing Thursday of a policewoman, was still on the loose.

Outside the kosher supermarket, an AFP reporter saw at least one body lying at the scene, where the sliding glass door of the shop was completely shattered.

Friday's drama first focused on the manhunt for the Kouachi brothers who were quickly cornered in a printing business in Dammartin-en-Goele outside Paris after a firefight with police which prosecutor Francois Molins said left Said with a minor neck wound.

The brothers took the store manager hostage, later releasing him after he helped Said with his wound, while a second man hid upstairs, said Molins.

The men had a hefty cache of arms including Molotov cocktails and a loaded rocket-launcher.
One witness described a terrifying face-to-face encounter with one of the suspects, dressed in black, wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying what looked like a Kalashnikov.

The salesman told France Info radio that one of the brothers said: "'Leave, we don't kill civilians anyhow'."

As French elite forces moved into place around the building, with snipers deployed on roofs and helicopters buzzing overhead, fresh terror descended on eastern Paris with a hail of gunfire around lunchtime.

There, Coulibaly stormed a Jewish supermarket hours before the Sabbath, killing four shoppers and taking others hostage.

Police swarmed to the Vincennes area, ordering terrified residents to stay indoors.

As the sun set shortly after 5:00pm local time, the two Islamist Charlie Hebdo gunmen staged a desperate escape bid, charging out of the building with guns blazing before being cut down in their tracks.

Shortly afterwards security forces moved in on the supermarket, where Coulibaly had just knelt to do his evening prayer when the special forces struck.

BFMTV revealed police were able to exploit a lapse in his defences as he had not hung up his phone after speaking to one of their reporters.

Coulibaly told the rolling news station he was a member of the Islamic State extremist group.
A security source told AFP he had also called friends from the scene urging them to stage further attacks.

Friday's updates

20:50 There are unconfirmed reports that two people have been killed in the Paris incident. We know that the hostage-taker did open fire as he entered the grocery store. He may be accompanied by a woman.

20:00 All of a sudden, the live television coverage has shifted to Paris where a second hostage-taking incident is taking place. You can watch live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFwedk4dBCc

Here is what we know from AFP

Armed man takes hostage in kosher grocery in Paris

Fresh shooting broke out in eastern Paris on Friday, with reports that an armed man had taken a hostage (update: five hostages) at a kosher grocery store, a source told AFP.

The gunman was suspected of being the same man who killed a policewoman in southern Paris on Thursday, who is thought to have links to the assailants who stormed satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.

17:15: France 24 network reports that local media say the suspects and hostage(s) are in a small printing company in an industrial estate near a village of about 8000 people. The number of hostages beyond the driver of the stolen car is unknown. The company has five employees. There are reports of at least one death and several injuries during an earlier shootout, but this has not been confirmed. French prosecutors have denied any deaths. More than 1000 police are on the scene. The area is quite isolated and is located about 40 kilometres from Paris near Charles de Gaulle airport where two runways have now been closed.

AFP reports that prior to the current standoff, the suspects had hijacked a Peugeot 206 nearby from a woman who said she recognised them as the brothers, Cherif and Said Kouachi.

16:00 If you turned  on CNN or the BBC a few minutes ago you would have seen live footage of French police vehicles rushing to a factory where police are thought to have surrounded the suspects in the Paris killings. The suspects had stolen a car, taken hostages and shot at police. CNN says the police have "a high degree of confidence" that they have located the suspects. Here is a slightly earlier story from AFP.

Shots fired in car chase north-east of Paris: police source

A hostage-taking was underway Friday at a business north-east of Paris after police hunting the Islamist brothers who killed 12 people earlier this week exchanged fire with two men during a car chase, security sources said.

The number of people taken hostage was not immediately confirmed.

The drama unfolded on the National 2 highway almost 48 hours into a massive manhunt for the Islamist gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices on Wednesday.

11:25  Cherif the rapper  French television has shown a video clip of older brother Cherif Kouachi in a program aired a decade ago long before the young suspect in the Paris murders had become a jihadist. At that time his ambition was to become a rap star.

9:30: CNN reports that the reason the search is focusing on a forested area (greater in size than the city of Paris) is that the suspects were seen by helicopter abandoning the car they had hijacked and running into the woods. The Guardian says 88,000 security officers are involved in the search.

Forest hunt for gunmen as fear grips residents

By NICOLAS GUBERT, FRANCOIS BECKER
AFP Thursday 8 January 2015

Fear gripped residents in a wooded region of northern France Thursday where security forces hunted two brothers suspected of waging a Paris magazine massacre.

Helicopters buzzed overhead as elite police and paramilitary forces in their hundreds combed through an area in the Aisne region where the fugitives thought to be behind Wednesday's bloodbath were spotted earlier.

Police searched garden huts, garages and anywhere else they could be hiding.

Wearing black bulletproof vests and heavy helmets, the security forces repeated the same routine again and again – four or five of them silently surrounded a building, while two others pointed their automatic rifles, ready to shoot if the suspects tried to burst out.

A cemetery, the banks of a pond... nothing was left to chance as anxious residents of villages and towns on their path looked on, a day and a half after two gunmen burst into the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, mowing down 12 people.

On one occasion, 20 heavily armed security force officers surrounded a nearby house and stormed it, while journalists were kept away from the scene.

They were looking for Cherif Kouachi, 32, a known jihadist convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq, and his 34-year-old brother Said.

"We live next to the forest," said Roseline, a grandmother who lives in the small, picturesque village of Corcy.

"I'm scared, night is falling and they may be hidden nearby."

Michel, a 55-year-old bus driver, said he was also scared. "I've gone round the house, closed the shutters, but there are loads of caves nearby and places where they grow mushrooms," he said, suggesting they were ideal hiding places.

Thurday updates

Things are moving quickly now. Here is more from AFP.

Two suspects in Paris magazine shooting spotted in north France

Two brothers suspected of having gunned down 12 people in an Islamist attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were spotted Thursday morning and are armed, sources close to the manhunt said.

The manager of a petrol station near Villers-Cotteret in the northern Aisne region "recognised the two men suspected of having participated in the attack against Charlie Hebdo", the source said.

CNN reports that weapons were seen in the car and the two brothers forced the manager to give them petrol and food. They left taking a route which would bring them back to Paris.

Meanwhile, AFP reports that tension was heightened evern further as several other incidents rocked the already jittery nation, although it was not clear whether they were linked to Wednesday's attack.

A gunman shot dead a policewoman and wounded a city employee with an automatic rifle just to the south of Paris and there was an explosion at a kebab shop in eastern France, with no casualties immediately reported.

Two Muslim places of worship were also fired at in the wake of Wednesday's attacks, prosecutors said.

Suspect's photos released, youngest suspect surrenders.

French police on Thursday published photos of two brothers wanted as suspects over a bloody massacre at a magazine in Paris as they launched an appeal to the public for information.

An 18-year-old implicated alongside two brothers in the bloody attack against a satirical weekly in Paris has surrendered to police, according to a source close to the case.

"Hamyd Mourad handed himself in to police... on Wednesday at 11:00 pm (2200 GMT) after seeing his name circulating on social media," the source told AFP. "He has been arrested and taken into custody," another source confirmed.

(Note: No reports yet whether the young suspect has admitted to being involved. Wait a minute. The Guardian now reports that the young man has said he was innocent and he apparently has a good alibi. He says he was in school at the time of the shooting.)

French raid in progress after 12 killed in magazine attack

Paris, Jan 8, 2015 , AFP –  French anti-terror police launched a late-night raid in a northeastern city Wednesday in a frantic manhunt for masked gunmen who shouted "Allahu akbar" as they killed 12 people at a satirical weekly in Paris, sparking global outrage.

Local television showed black-clad sharpshooters from the elite police unit in the streets of Reims, in France's Champagne region, as a source close to the case said three men, two of them brothers, had been identified as suspects.

Several thousand police were deployed to find the gunmen, one of whom was convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq, the source said. The suspects were said to be aged 18, 32 and 34.

"They are considered dangerous and heavily armed," the source added.

In a sombre televised address, President Francois Hollande declared a day of national mourning on Thursday – only the fifth in the past 50 years – after the worst attack on French soil in decades.

The Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo, a magazine that has long been in confrontation with Islamists, triggered impromptu demonstrations of solidarity in cities across France and around the world, including Moscow, Washington, London and Tokyo.

More than 100,000 gathered across France, many protesters carrying banners reading: "I am Charlie". Hollande called the massacre "an act of exceptional barbarity" and "undoubtedly a terrorist attack."

"Nothing can divide us, nothing should separate us. Freedom will always be stronger than barbarity," said the president, who ordered flags flown at half-mast for the next three days.

Charlie Hebdo gained notoriety in February 2006 when it reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had originally appeared in a Danish daily, causing fury across the Muslim world.

The killers on Wednesday shouted "we have avenged the prophet, we have killed Charlie Hebdo", according to prosecutors.

The drama began in broad daylight in a quiet Paris street when the gunmen stormed into the weekly's offices as the journalists were in an editorial meeting, first shooting a person in the reception area.

They picked off eight journalists, including some of France's best-known cartoonists, a policeman and a visitor. One person survived by hiding under a table.

Chilling amateur video footage filmed after the carnage then showed them outside, running toward a wounded policeman as he lay on the pavement.

One attacker says: "You wanted to kill me?" before coldly shooting the officer dead.

Prosecutors said 11 people were also injured in the attack, with four in critical condition.

Charlie Hebdo's offices were fire-bombed in November 2011 when it published a cartoon of Mohammed under the title "Sharia Hebdo".

Despite being taken to court under anti-racism laws, the weekly continued to publish controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet.

Tuesday's stories

21:35

News agencies are reporting that the French Interior Minister just said there were three, not two, gunmen. The attack took place while an editorial meeting was being held, which explains why so many high-level employees were killed.

21:20

The satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was hated in the Muslim community for its cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammad. But it was also admired for its fearless defence of the right of free speech and its satire went far beyond Islam to other religions and, of course, politics. Already, the French have started campaign honouring those who died and showing solidarity with the newspaper's ideals. It is called "I am Charlie".

It should be noted that Muslim leaders in France have also condemned the violence, saying the gunmen represent only a small minority.

21:00

Ten of those killed were on the staff of the newspaper and the other two were police. Here is more from AFP on the victims and the likely reason they were targeted by the gunmen.

Some of the best-known cartoonists in France were among the 12 killed when gunmen stormed the office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Wednesday, a judicial source said.

Editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, and the cartoonists known as Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski were killed in the attack on the paper, which gained notoriety for repeatedly publishing caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.

12 shot dead in 'terrorist' attack on French newspaper

Paris, Jan 7, 2015, AFP – At least 12 people were killed when gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher opened fire in the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.

President Francois Hollande, who immediately headed to the scene of the shooting in Paris, described it as a "terrorist attack."

Hollande said 12 people were killed and another four were in critical condition after the attack, branding it an "act of exceptional barbarism" and calling an emergency cabinet meeting.  He called for "national unity" as the government raised its alert level to the highest possible in the greater Paris region.

He added that "several terrorist attacks had been foiled in recent weeks". Wednesday's shooting is one of the worst attacks in France in decades.

A source close to the investigation said two men "armed with a Kalashnikov and a rocket-launcher" stormed the building in central Paris and "fire was exchanged with security forces".

The source said a gunman had hijacked a car and knocked over a pedestrian while attempting to speed away. He added that two police officers had died in the attack.

Television footage showed large numbers of police in the area, bullet-riddled windows and people being carried away on stretchers.

The gunmen shouted "we have avenged the prophet," according to a police source.

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