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Charlie Hebdo manhunt: LIVE REPORT

Date:

22:08 GMT – With the end of the hostage stand-off, AFP is closing its Live Report. Three assailants are dead and the whereabouts of a fourth are unclear, as France begins to reflect on three days of terror. What started with a massacre at a satirical magazine seems to have ended in a hail of bullets and flash grenades as special police put a stop to two simulantaneous hostage situations by force.

France will now begin to process the violence and confront extremists, with hundreds of thousands expected to gather in the streets on Sunday to show their support for peace and freedom as they declare, “Je suis Charlie.”

21:23 GMT – Phone calls – A security source says Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who was shot dead by Paris police at a Jewish supermarket, phoned other people from the scene, urging them to stage further attacks.

20:47 GMT – Failings – French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says the heavy death toll in a three days of attacks in France shows clear flaws in intelligence.

“There is a clear failing. When 17 people die, it means there were cracks” in security, Valls tells BFMTV, referring to the string of people slaughtered by three gunmen who were killed by security forces as they ended two separate hostage-takings.

20:41 GMT – ‘Crazies’ – French imams condemn violence committed in the name of Islam during Friday prayers as the country reels from the double hostage dramas that followed the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine.

The same message — distancing the country’s five million Muslims from the jihadists responsible for the attacks — is relayed at more than 2,300 mosques across France.

20:02 GMT – Jewish security – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks France to maintain tight security on Jewish sites after the hostage-taking at a kosher store.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu asked the president of France to keep up the increased security on Jewish institutions even after things return to normal,” Israeli government sources tell AFP following a telephone conversation between Netanyahu and Francois Hollande.

“Our hearts are with the families of the victims. Israel offers you any help that France may need,” the sources quote Netanyahu as saying.

19:42 GMT – Merkel – German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will join Hollande and other leaders at Sunday’s rally.

“I think it is an important sign of Franco-German friendship that we stand side by side at a time like this,” Merkel says. “I am impressed with how the French people are standing together in the face of this barbaric attack.”

She adds that France and Germany share the same values and that “when these values are being threatened, we can say only one thing: we have to stand united.”

19:13 GMT – Oldest ally – US President Barack Obama addressed the violence in France at the start of a speech in the southern state of Tennesee.

“We’re hopeful the immediate threat is now resolved, thanks to the courage and professionalism of the French personnel on the ground.

“The situation is fluid. President Hollande made it clear they’ll do whatever is necessary to protect their people and I think it’s important for us to understand France is our oldest ally. I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today. Stands with you tomorrow. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have been directly impacted.

We grieve with you.

19:00 GMT – HOLLANDE SAYS HE WILL ATTEND NATIONAL UNITY MARCH ON SUNDAY

18:57 GMT – Anti-Semitic – Hollande calls hostage drama in Jewish supermarket an ‘appalling anti-Semitic act’. He said France still faces threats, ‘these fanatics have nothing to do with Muslim religion.’

18:54 GMT – THE PRESIDENT BEGINS ADDRESSING THE NATION

18:51 GMT – Phone calls – Two hostage takers phoned a local television station before the raids in which they died.

Amedy Coulibaly, a gunman who seized a Jewish supermarket in Paris, told BFMTV station he had “co-ordinated” with the Charlie Hebdo killers and was a member of the Islamic State group.

Cherif Kouachi, one of the brothers who carried out the Wednesday magazine massacre before taking a person hostage on Friday, meanwhile told BFMTV they had been financed by Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

18:45 GMT – Not related – A gunman robbed a jewellery store in the southern French city of Montpellier on Friday, taking two hostages, a judicial source said, adding the incident “had no link” to the twin hostage dramas around Paris.

“It was a robbery, it has nothing to do with what is happening in Paris,” prosecutor Christophe Barret told AFP.

18:21 GMT – Italy – Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would come to Paris on Sunday, when a mass rally will be held in the wake of the massacre at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

“I will be with @FHollande in Paris on Sunday. #JeSuisCharlie. We will not allow fear to change us #Europe,” he said on his personal Twitter account in a message in both French and Italian.

18:13 GMT – ARMED ROBBER TAKES HOSTAGE AT JEWELLERY STORE IN SOUTHERN FRENCH CITY

17:47 GMT – Unity rally – British Prime Minister David Cameron, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and European Union president Donald Tusk say they will join a rally for “national unity” to be held Sunday in Paris.

Earlier Tusk, speaking in the Latvian capital Riga, said: “Tonight my heart is also in Paris in solidarity with the victims and the families of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

“Today we can only repeat yesterday’s headlines across the world, ‘Je suis Charlie,’ and say we are not afraid. We will not be intimidated by the brutal and violent attacks on our freedom.

“This is the very reason why we have built the EU — to effectively protect our values against all kinds of violence.”

17:38 GMT – Police escort – In Saint-Mande, near Porte de Vincennes, people living in the area that had been blocked off are allowed to return home, but are being escorted one by one.

“Walk along the wall,” a police officer tells them. The residents, around 20 of them, have been watching the assault from behind a security cordon. Gradually, people appear at windows, many with a telephone in hand. Others are coming out of their flats to see what’s going on.

17:30 GMT – Hollande address – Crisis talks at the Elysee presidential palace have finished without any statement made. Francois Hollande will give a televised address to the nation before 20:00 local time, according to his aides.

17:24 GMT – Five dead – To confirm, five people have been killed, including the gunman, and four critically wounded in the Vincennes hostage drama at a Jewish grocery store.

It is not immediately clear if the casualties occurred when police stormed the building or earlier in the siege, nor whether a second hostage-taker was among the dead.

17:15 GMT – FOUR CRITICALLY WOUNDED IN PARIS SUPERMARKET HOSTAGE DRAMA: SECURITY SOURCE

17:08 GMT – Second suspect – At Porte de Vincennes an operation is under way to find a possible second suspect. The atmosphere is extremely tense in the district, with police deployed in the streets, obviously looking for someone, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Dozens of police have been deployed in a nearby park and are searching in the dark by torchlight, armed with automatic weapons.

17:07 GMT – Child hostage – In Porte de Vincennes a three-year-old child was among the hostages held at the grocery store, who, according to the child’s grandmother, has now been freed unharmed.

17:03 GMT – FIVE DEAD, INCLUDING GUNMAN, IN PARIS SUPERMARKET HOSTAGE DRAMA: SECURITY SOURCE

– Five dead –

17:02 GMT – HOSTAGE-TAKERS AT DAMMARTIN WERE KOUACHI BROTHERS

The two hostage takers at Dammartin have been “formally identified as Cherif and Said Kouachi”, a source close to the operation tells AFP.

The two brothers, suspected of killing 12 in the attack against Charlie Hebdo had been holed up in a printing business northeast of Paris.

16:58 GMT – Round-up – To summarise: elite police have stormed a printworks and a Jewish supermarket, killing two brothers wanted for the Charlie Hebdo attack and an apparent accomplice who had taken hostages in two separate sieges.

— Explosions rocked a small printing firm in the village of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, and smoke poured from the building as the heavily armed forces mounted their assault as night fell.

— The two Islamists launched a desperate escape bid, charging out of the building firing at the security forces before being cut down in their tracks, a security source said.

— In the east of Paris, gunfire erupted as police stormed the Jewish store, where at least one armed assailant had seized five hostages after two people were killed in a gun battle. The gunman was also killed, security sources said, as terrified hostages were seen running out of the store.

16:55 GMT – Dammartin hostage – In Dammartin, where the Charlie Hebdo suspects were killed, “the hostage, a 26-year-old man, who has been shut in one of the rooms of the business from the outset, is unharmed,” a source close to the operation tells AFP.

Three helicopters have landed in a nearby field, reports AFP journalist Eve Szeftel.

16:49 GMT – PARIS SUPERMARKET HOSTAGE-TAKER KILLED IN ASSAULT: SECURITY SOURCE

16:35 GMT – PARIS SUPERMARKET HOSTAGE-TAKER ‘NEUTRALISED’: SECURITY SOURCE

– Supermarket hostage-taker dead –

16:30 GMT – SUSPECTS CAME OUT FIRING

The killed Charlie Hebdo suspects came out firing on security forces, a source says.

The two brothers were killed when elite police stormed the building they were holed up in and freed a hostage unhurt, sources close to the investigation say.

Explosions rang out when heavily armed commandos made their move on the small printing firm in Dammartin-en-Goele northeast of Paris, killing the two massacre suspects. One police officer was injured.

16:25 GMT – Hostage – In Dammartin, the Charlie Hebdo gunmen’s hostage has been freed and is safe after the police assault that killed the attack suspects according to a source.

“There are no more explosions but police and military vehicles have arrived, sirens blaring,” AFP’s Valentin Bontemps reports.

16:21 GMT – SEVERAL HOSTAGES FREED

Several hostages have been freed at the Jewish supermarket in Porte de Vincennes in Paris after French commandos stormed the building.

At least four loud explosions rocked the area along with a burst of gunfire, followed by the wail of sirens and police shouting in the streets, AFP’s Clement Zampa reports.

16:18 GMT – CHARLIE HEBDO SUSPECTS KILLED: SOURCE

16:15 GMT – EXPLOSIONS AS COMMANDOS LAUNCH ASSAULT ON PARIS GROCERY

– Blasts –

16:09 GMT – Assault – French commandos have launched an assault at a building where the Charlie Hebdo suspects were holed up with a hostage on Friday in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele.

Just before 5:00 pm local time a series of detonations and explosions were heard and smoke was seen rising from the building, AFP journalists report from the scene.

16:05 GMT – Live footage – You can view the scene of the French security forces operation at AFP’s live feed: http://u.afp.com/RLG

16:02 GMT – EXPLOSIONS AT SITE WHERE CHARLIE HEBDO SUSPECTS HOLED UP

16:02 GMT – POLICE LAUNCH ASSAULT WHERE CHARLIE HEBDO SUSPECTS HOLED UP: OFFICIAL SOURCE

– Police assault –

16:01 GMT – Friday prayers – During Friday prayers in French mosques imams called for calm and unity. An imam in Nantes, referring to cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, said: “We have condemned these images — but nothing can justify such violence”.

15:24 GMT – Global support – From New York to Los Angeles, Mexico, Tokyo and Johannesburg, demonstrations of support are being replicated the world over. US President Barack Obama, Prince Harry and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have all visited French embassies. In Vienna, the Austrian government is calling religious communities to join a “together against terrorism” rally Sunday, while Muslim organisations in Berlin will lead a silent march Monday with the message “don’t be intimidated”.

15:24 GMT – Royal condolences – Britain’s Prince Harry has paid a visit to the French Embassy in London where he wrote in a book of condolences “with warmest best wishes” in memory of the victims of the attack against Charlie Hebdo.

15:24 GMT – ‘Brotherly’ neighbourhood – Porte de Vincennes resident Raquel Garrido was at the scene when the latest hostage drama kicked off. She tells AFPTV: “I was suddenly caught in the middle of dozens and dozens of police with their bullet-proof vests, with sub-machine guns, very worried looks, who looked around them to see what’s going on. They all ran, one after the other, towards the Porte de Vincennes on side of the ring road.”

She described the neighbourhood as “very brotherly”, with “plenty of nationalities, plenty of religions, adding that usually “it works out really well”.

“We can see that there are some crazies who dream of killing each other, and we’re stuck in the middle, neighbours, residents, ordinary citizens. We talk love, we talk fraternity, we say ‘stop’. And I’m sure we’ll win in the end.”

15:23 GMT – Beghal – Islamist Djamel Beghal, said to have been spotted with suspects Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly in 2010, was placed in isolation in prison and had “nothing to do” with the current attacks, his lawyer says.

15:23 GMT – Turkey media – Turkish journalists gathered on Friday to defend freedom of speech after the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Pinar Turenc, president of the Turkish Press Council, said: “If we don’t defend freedom of expression and press freedom after events like these, when will we do it? That’s why we’re here and that’s why we’ve organised this gathering, to say that we are here and that we will continue to be here.”

Milliyet cartoonist Ercan Akyol said: “The cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo were those holding the banner of freedom of thought with the most courage. Of course, it is surprising that this happened in a Western democracy, but for us, Turks, it’s not so surprising.”

14:59 GMT – Israel reaction – Israel has expressed concern over a “terror offensive” in France following the three attacks this week, the latest at a jewish grocery store.

“Israel is following the situation in Paris with concern,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in statement. “The terrorist offensive taking place over the past three days is not only against the French people or France’s Jews but against the entire free world.”

Earlier Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for global unity to fight radical Islam. He said: “They might have different names, ISIS (the Islamic State group), Boka Haram, Hamas, Al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, but all of them were driven by the same hatred and bloodthirsty fanaticism and all of them seek to destroy our freedom and to impose on all of us a violent medieval tyranny.”

14:52 GMT – Suspect ‘links’ – More details on the reported link between the two terror suspects: Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly were seen together in 2010 while visiting another jihadist Djamel Beghal, mastermind of a failed prison break-out plot.

Coulibaly was convicted for his part in the planned break and was well-known to anti-terrorist police. Charges against Kouachi were dropped in the case.

The man they were trying to break out was Algerian Islamist Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 for a bombing at the Musee d’Orsay metro station in Paris in October 1995 that left around 30 injured.

14:36 GMT – Merkel meeting off – A meeting between French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel planned in Strasbourg Sunday has been postponed following the attacks in France, says a spokesman for European parliament president Martin Schulz.

14:06 GMT – Round-up – In case you’re just joining us, here is a brief summary of Friday’s events so far as French security forces tackle two dramatic hostage situations.

— French elite forces surrounded two brothers suspected of slaughtering 12 people in the Islamist massacre at Charlie Hebdo. The pair took one person hostage at a small printing business in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele after exchanging fire with police during a high-speed car chase.

— A fresh shooting and hostage drama erupted at a kosher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris. At least two people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the store and took at least five people hostage, sources say.

— Police released images of a man and woman wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of a policewoman Thursday in Montrouge. Sources say the man, Amedy Coulibaly, 32, may be the Vincennes hostage-taker and knew one of the Charlie Hebdo suspects.

14:06 GMT – Charlie Hebdo staff – French Prime Minister Manuel Valls visited the headquarters of France’s Liberation newspaper Friday to “support the Charlie Hebdo journalists” who survived the attack and are being put up by the left-leaning daily.

Staff at the publication have said next week’s edition will go ahead, with a print run of one million copies, compared with its usual 60,000 a week.

Four people seriously wounded in Wednesday’s attack remain in an “emergency situation”, “but their life is no longer in danger”, according to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

– PM support –

14:06 GMT – Media warning – French media regulator CSA has urged TV and radio broadcasters to “act with the utmost discernment” to ensure the security of their teams and to not interfere with the investigation following the Charlie Hebdo attack and latest hostage episode.

14:05 GMT – Witnesses escape – Some witnesses to the shootings at the kosher grocery targeted by a hostage-taker in Paris’s Porte de Vincennes have managed to escape, a source close to the investigations tells AFP.

The hostage-taker burst into the mini-supermarket at around 1:00 pm local time armed with two machine guns. He opened fire, the source adds, killing “at least two” and taking “at least five people hostage”.

14:05 GMT – Coulibaly – The man holding hostages in Vincennes knew at least one of the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre, a source tells AFP.

Amedy Coulibaly, 32, was seen with Charlie Hebdo suspect Cherif Kouachi in 2010 during an investigation into an attempted prison break in France. Coulibaly was convicted for his role and was well-known to anti-terrorist police.

14:05 GMT – PARIS HOSTAGE-TAKER ‘KNEW’ CHARLIE HEBDO KILLER: SOURCE

13:48 GMT – Elysee – New crisis talks are to be held at the French Elysee presidential palace at 3:15 pm in relation to the hostage-taking at Porte de Vincennes.

13:33 GMT – Elite troops – Around 20 armed police, apparently elite troops, are positioned behind shields below the shop where the hostages are being held, says AFP’s Stephane Jourdin. According to a police source the “hostage taker is still in place”.

13:24 GMT – POLICE RELEASE PHOTOS OF SUSPECTS

Police have released photos of a man and a woman wanted in connection with the fatal shooting Thursday at Montrouge.

The pair, named as Amedy Coulibaly, 32, and Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, are “likely armed and dangerous”, police say.

A heavily armed man, killed a policewoman Thursday in Montrouge, south of Paris and a council employee was injured in the attack. The gunman in the latest hostage-taking in Vincennes is suspected of being the same man who killed the policewoman, according to a source.

13:23 GMT – Two dead – At least two people have been killed in the shooting that broke out at midday local time at a Jewish grocery shop in Vincennes where at least five people are being held hostage, a source close to the investigation says.

“There are at least two dead, maybe more but for the moment we don’t know,” the source tells AFP.

13:21 GMT – AT LEAST TWO KILLED IN VINCENNES HOSTAGE DRAMA

13:20 GMT – Emergency operation – The Porte de Vincennes area is blocked by security forces, according to AFP’s Stephane Jourdain. Fire and rescue crews and police are at the scene, with a helicopter hovering overhead. She says the entrances to St Mande and Porte de Vincennes Metro stations have been closed.

13:08 GMT – Schools – Pupils in schools near the Porte de Vincennes hostage site have been confined to their buildings, the local education authority tells AFP.

13:05 GMT – SCHOOLS NEAR PARIS HOSTAGE-TAKING GO INTO LOCKDOWN: OFFICIALS

– School lockdown –

13:03 GMT – Minister en route – Francois Hollande has ordered Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to head to the site of the latest hostage-taking in Porte de Vincennes.

Traffic on the tramway in the area has been partially suspended due to the incident.

12:58 GMT – AT LEAST FIVE HOSTAGES IN PARIS KOSHER SUPERMARKET: SOURCE

12:57 GMT – Anti-terror probe – French counter-terrorist officers are urgently investigating “events” at Port de Vincennes, an official says, without elaborating on the incident.

12:37 GMT – AT LEAST ONE INJURED IN PARIS KOSHER GROCERY SHOOTING, HOSTAGE DRAMA: SOURCES

12:37 GMT – Grocery shooting – Fresh shooting has broken out in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris, with reports that an armed man has taken a hostage at a kosher grocery store, a source tells AFP.

The gunman is 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.

– Kosher grocery hostage drama –

12:30 GMT – GUNMAN IN POLICEWOMAN KILLING SUSPECTED IN NEW PARIS HOSTAGE-TAKING: SOURCE

12:30 GMT – ARMED MAN TAKES HOSTAGE IN KOSHER GROCERY IN PARIS: SOURCE

12:29 GMT – NEW SHOOTING BREAKS OUT IN EASTERN PARIS: SOURCE

12:28 GMT – Negotiators – Elite police units are trying to establish dialogue with the two suspects holed up in a small business outside Paris with a hostage, an interior ministry spokesman says.

“The priority is to resolve this crisis in the smoothest way possible, that is without violence. The priority is to establish contact” with the suspects, Pierre-Henry Brandet tells BFMTV.

12:08 GMT – FRENCH POLICE TRYING ‘TO ESTABLISH CONTACT’ WITH MASSACRE SUSPECTS: INTERIOR MINISTRY

12:06 GMT – School evacuations – Four schools are being evacuated in Dammartin, scene of the hostage drama, AFP photographer Francois Nascimbeni tells us. The evacuation of around 200 pupils from the Henri Dunant primary school will begin shortly, according to the local council.

“Dammartin’s Henri Dunant primary and nursery schools — some 200 pupils, will be transported to the town’s gymnasium where parents can collect them,” a council spokesman said, adding that the European college and high school in Mitry-Mory were also being evacuated.

– Evacuation –

11:47 GMT – Lockdown – In Dammartin, a small locality of around 8,000 residents in the Seine-et-Marne region, streets are deserted, iron shutters on business premises are lowered and access has been cut by security forces.

“There’s no way out, the zone is in lockdown, access to the business zone is closed and all around for as far as the eye can see there are flat, water-logged fields that only a 4×4 could tackle,” says AFP journalist Eve Szeftel from the search scene, adding: “Of the six helicopters at the scene, four have landed, while two have left the zone.”

11:34 GMT – Shootings ‘linked’ – French police say there is a “connection” between a suspect identified in a fatal policewoman shooting south of Paris and the brothers wanted for a massacre at Charlie Hebdo.

Up until now, police had not linked the murder of 12 people on Wednesday morning in Paris to the shooting in Montrouge the next day, but a police source said initial investigations had revealed a “connection” between the suspects.

Police said earlier they had identified the Montrouge suspect and were questioning two people in his immediate circle.

11:19 GMT – PARIS POLICEWOMAN KILLING LINKED TO MASSACRE BROTHERS: POLICE

11:18 GMT – Unity ‘broken’ – National Front leader Marine Le Pen, outside the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, tells journalists: “I will not break down the organisers’ cordon for the demonstration to try and infiltrate a demonstration at which quite clearly the organisers do not want to see us.

“I do not go where I am not wanted. But I don’t only think of myself, I think of the millions of French people who have voted for the National Front and who realise today that national unity, which is so desirable, has been broken by the sectarianism of certain people, especially the Socialist and UDI parties, among others.”

11:16 GMT – ‘Reject stigma’ – French President Francois Hollande urged people to “reject exaggerations, stigmatisations, caricatures”. In a speech at the Interior Ministry, he says: “All citizens can come to the demonstrations, there are no restrictions. And it’s only the same conviction, the same determination that should motivate many of our citizens to come on Sunday.”

His comments follow a row about the participation of the far-right National Front (FN) party in a rally Sunday, with FN leader Marine Le Pen claiming the party had been “excluded”.

In an unusual move, Hollande was due to meet Le Pen at the Elysee Palace later Friday, as France gears up for the “Republican march”, expected to draw hundreds of thousands in defence of free speech following the Charlie Hebdo attack.

11:03 GMT – Lights off – A 60-year-old woman from Dammartin, who identifies herself as A.B, is among those who have retreated behind the security cordon. She tells AFP : “My daughter works in the zone where the terrorists are hiding, just opposite. The business where she works is being protected by the GIGN (special forces). They told her to turn off the lights and to shut herself away.

She adds: “My daughter said to me ‘Mum, don’t be afraid, we are well protected. She is calm, but me, I’m scared.”

– Hostage zone in lockdown –

10:55 GMT – Eyewitness – Stephane, 45, who works at a local business in Dammartin, says: “The zone has been evacuated, there is no one left there. Some residents were forced to stay in their homes but the whole of the industrial zone has been emptied. The CRS (elite police unit) combed the area and evacuated us.

“It happened very quickly, we saw helicopters and all of a sudden we saw the CRS surrounding us. We began to panic a bit. But we don’t know where the suspects are.”

10:35 GMT – Flight disruption – The schedule of flights taking off and landing at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport was disrupted Friday morning because of the proximity of the airport to Dammartin-en-Goele, where the two Charlie Hebdo suspects are holed up.

“As a precaution, we are not letting any more planes land for the moment on the northern runways but we will allow them on the south. Take-offs will continue however from the northern runways, close to Demmartin,” a spokesman for Paris airports (ADP) told AFP.

10:20 GMT – Elite forces – The operation under way in Dammartin-en-Goele is being handled by France’s elite military unit GIGN, led in person by the head of the Gendarmerie, Denis Favier. A double security perimeter held by around 100 troops has been put in place around the hostage zone.

10:06 GMT – Hostage zone – The area where the hostage drama is happening comprises around a dozen businesses of various sizes, including logistics group Kuehne and Nagel, craftsmen, a local authority warehouse and a post office.

The business where the hostage is being held, called CTD, according to a police source, comprises “five or six people”, according to a local authority worker.

09:55 GMT – ‘War on terror’ – French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France is “at war” with terrorism, not religion. He says new measures are necessary to respond to the terrorist threat.

“We are in a war against terrorism, we are not in a war against a religion, against a civilisation,” he says at a meeting at the Interior Ministry.

– France ‘at war’ with terrorism –

09:54 GMT – Montrouge arrest – Police have identified a suspect in the shooting Thursday of a policewoman in Montrouge, south of Paris, and have taken two people in his immediate circle into custody, a source close to the investigation says.

“The suspect has been identified. Two people very close to him have been taken into custody,” the source says. The shooting, which left another person injured, has not been linked to Wednesday’s Islamist attack in the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead.

09:44 GMT – FRENCH POLICE IDENTIFY SUSPECT IN SHOOTING OF POLICEWOMAN: SOURCE

09:44 GMT – No casualties – There have been no reported casualties in the exchange of fire and hostage-taking, prosecutors tell AFP.

Police have closed in on Said and Cherif Kouachi, who are thought to have taken one hostage at a small printing shop in Seine-et-Marne, about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) from Paris’s main airport Charles De Gaulle.

09:42 GMT – PARIS MASSACRE SUSPECTS HOLDING ONE HOSTAGE: POLICE SOURCE

09:39 GMT – ‘Neutralise’ – A police operation is under way to “neutralise” the two suspects, says French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

“An operation is under way which is set to neutralise the perpetrators of the cowardly attack carried out two days ago,” he says in a televised statement.

09:36 GMT – WELCOME TO AFP’S LIVE REPORT on the hunt for the two brothers accused of slaughtering 12 people in an Islamist assault on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

A dramatic hostage situation is under way in an area northeast of Paris where shots were fired early Friday during a car chase, with at least one hostage taken.

The drama unfolded at a business in Dammartin-en-Goele and came 48 hours into a huge manhunt for the Islamist gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear how many people were being held hostage, according to a police source close to the investigation.

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