French forces hunt massacre suspects
Print Edition
FRENCH anti-terrorism police converged on an area northeast of Paris yesterday after two brothers suspected of being behind an attack on a satirical magazine were spotted at a petrol station in the region.
Police sources said the men were seen armed and wearing cagoules in a Renault Clio car at a petrol station on a secondary road in Villiers-Cotterets some 70 kilometers from the French capital.
Amid French media reports that the men had abandoned their car, Bruno Fortier, mayor of neighboring Crepy-en-Valois, said helicopters were circling his town and police and anti-terrorism forces were deploying.
“It’s an incessant waltz of police cars and trucks,” he said.
He could not confirm reports that the men were holed up in a house in the area.
A policewoman was killed in a shootout in Paris earlier in the day, but police sources could not immediately confirm a link with Wednesday’s killings at the Charlie Hebdo magazine.
National leaders and allied states described the assault on the paper, known for its lampooning of Islam and other religions as well as politicians, as an assault on democracy.
The bells of Notre-Dame cathedral rang out during a minute’s silence observed across France and beyond.
Montrouge Mayor Jean-Loup Metton said the policewoman and a colleague were attending a reported traffic accident when yesterday’s shooting occurred. Witnesses said the assailant fled in a Renault Clio and police sources said he wore a bullet-proof vest and had a handgun and assault rifle.
Police released photographs of the two French nationals still at large, calling them “armed and dangerous” — brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, aged 32 and 34.
Late Wednesday, an 18-year-old man turned himself into police in Charleville-Mezieres near the Belgian border. A legal source said he was the brother-in-law of one of the suspects and French media quoted friends as saying he was in school at the time of the attack.
French social media carried numerous reports of police helicopters across northern France. Police tightened security at transport hubs, religious sites, media offices and stores.
There were scattered, unconfirmed reports of sightings of the assailants and police increased their presence at entry points to Paris.
The defense ministry said it had brought in an additional 200 soldiers from parachute regiments across the country to Paris to take the number of military patrolling the capital’s streets to 850.
France held a day of mourning for journalists and police officers shot dead by black-hooded gunmen using Kalashnikov assault rifles. French tricolour flags flew at half mast.
Tens of thousands took part in vigils across France on Wednesday to defend freedom of speech, many wearing badges declaring “Je Suis Charlie” (I Am Charlie) in support of the magazine and freedom of speech.
Many European newspapers re-published Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
France’s Muslim Council called on all French Muslims to join the minute of silence and said it was issuing a call for “all Imams in all of France’s mosques to condemn violence and terrorism wherever it comes from in the strongest possible way.”
The gunmen stormed the journal’s offices on Wednesday killing journalists, including its founder and its current editor-in-chief, and shouting “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Greatest). They then escaped in a black car, shouting, according to one witness, that they had “avenged the Prophet.”
Charlie Hebdo’s lawyer Richard Malka said the newspaper would be published next Wednesday with a million copies compared to its usual 60,000.
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