 Officers said the operation began after witnesses sighted the two men said to be responsible for the attack [AFP]
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| French media reports that both brothers suspected to be involved in Wednesday’s attack on a satirical newspaper have been killed in a police operation at Dammartin-en-Goele, the hostage they had taken survived.
The alleged attackers – brothers identified as 32-year-old Said Kouachi and 34-year-old Cherif Kouachi – had been cornered by police inside a printing house with a hostage in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris. French security forces had earlier poured into the small industrial town near Charles de Gaulle international airport after the suspects hijacked a car early on Friday in a nearby town. The two brothers had reportedly told police that they “want to die as martyrs”. Meanwhile, an armed man who had taken several people hostage at a kosher grocery store in Porte De Vincennes, and reportedly threatened to kill the hostages if police launched an assault on the Kouachi brothers, has also been killed in a police raid. French President Francois Hollande held a meeting with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Friday amid the police operations.
Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport closed two runways to arrivals amid the police operation in Dammartin-en-Goele town close to the airport. But an airport spokesman said the flight diversions are not affecting schedules. Heavily armed anti-terrorism police had swooped on residential areas of the town in an extensive manhunt for two brothers suspected of being behind killing at the satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo .
Police say the brothers are French-born sons of Algerian-born parents. In a news conference on Thursday, the interior minister said the younger brother was known to French security forces, adding that he had had links to al-Qaeda in 2004 and 2005. He added that Said Kouachi had been under security survellience. Police also said that the fatal shooting of a policewoman in Montrouge, south of Paris, on Thursday was linked to Wednesday’s shooting at the newspaper’s office. Another city employee was also seriously wounded in that shooting by a man wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying a handgun and automatic rifile. Footage from the printworks in Dammartin-en-Goele shows special forces taking positions before the final assault and smoke rising from near the building, with gunfire and explosions audible. |
In Paris cameras caught the moment when special forces stormed the kosher supermarket; several hostages were reported killed and others in critical condition, but French media have given inconsistent numbers of how many.
According to reports in the French media the denouement of the two hostage situations in Paris happened after French security forces crept into position on the roof of the printworks moments before opening bursts of gunfire.
Their two suspects, the Parisian brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, reportedly launched an audacious escape bid, charging out of the building firing at the security forces before being cut down in their tracks.
Moments later armed police launched an assault on the kosher restaurant in east Paris, using flashbangs and assault rifles to force entry to the under-siege deli.
Special combat forces are seen getting into position at the printworks where the Charlie Hebdo shooting suspects, brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, were holed up. Shortly afterwards gunshots and explosions can be heard as the special forces appear to storm the building. Police have reported that the suspects were killed in the exchange.
Several hostages dead: media reports
French media are reporting that not all of the hostages in the kosher supermarket siege at the porte de Vincennes survived.
According to AFP, BFMTV and other sources there were a number of deaths among the hostages. It was not immediately clear if they died during the police raid or before it. AFP also reported that a number of other hostages were critically injured.
Reports of the deaths remain unconfirmed. French president François Hollande is due to address the nation at 8pm local time / 7pm GMT / 2pm ET.
Summary
• The Parisian brothers suspected of the Charlie Hebdo massacre have been killed in a violent police raid on their compound in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, according to multiple reports.
• Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, who had been on the run since the shooting at the magazine’s offices on Wednesday, were killed when armed special forces stormed the building where they had held a hostage since early on Friday.
• The three-day terror incident came to a dramatic end just before 4pm GMT when armed officers raided the printing works on an industrial estate near Charles de Gaulle airport. The hostage was freed, according to multiple reports citing French officials.
•Moments later, officers launched an assault on a Kosher supermarket in east Paris where another gunman took up to six people hostage on Friday afternoon.
•That gunman was also killed when police stormed the supermarket, freeing some hostages, according to multiple reports.
•The first siege began at around 8.30am GMT on Friday when there were reports of shots being fired and hostages taken in Dammartin-en-Goele, sparking a major operation involving Swat teams, military helicopters and armed counter-terror officers.
•Earlier on Friday, French police issued an appeal for two suspects linked to the killing of the policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge yesterday. It named them as Hayat Boumeddienne, 26, and Amedy Coulibaly, 32. Coulibaly was also linked by French media to the Kosher supermarket siege.
