UPDATE: The two remaining at-large suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre have been killed in a police raid on their hideout:
2 #CharlieHebdo suspects killed in assault NE of Paris, officials tell #AFP
— Marc Burleigh (@marcburleigh) January 9, 2015Details of the raid and the status of the hostage(s) have not yet been disclosed, and we'll provide that information as soon as it comes in.
Additionally, it is being reported that several hostages have been freed from the Paris supermarket, and that the suspect may be either dead or in custody:
BREAKING Several hostages freed at Jewish supermarket in Paris: AFP
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) January 9, 2015
Police shouted "we've got him" at #Paris kosher store siege http://t.co/GRnVUzTK0b #CharileHebdo
— Brian Ries (@moneyries) January 9, 2015As with the other raid, we'll pass along more details as we have them.
UPDATE 2: A police official is reporting that four people have died at the supermarket in Paris:
BREAKING: Police officials: At least 4 dead, including gunman, in Paris kosher grocery hostage crisis. -@AP http://t.co/yQvDrgQLR7
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 9, 2015We'll have more on this tragic development as soon as it becomes available.
FROM EARLIER TODAY: The two remaining suspects in the horrific terrorist attack on French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo have been cornered by police, and are currently barricaded inside the offices of a printing company in Dammartin-en-Goële, a small town about 30 miles outside of Paris.
Brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi have reportedly told police that they plan to “die as martyrs,” and have taken at least one hostage. A senior police officer says that “They are behaving like two determined terrorists who are certainly physically exhausted, but who want to escape with one last big show of force and heroic resistance. They feel trapped and know that their last hours have come.”
The brothers both have ties to major terrorist organizations in their recent history. According to U.S. officials, Saïd traveled to Yemen in 2011 to receive training from an Al Qaeda affiliate before he returned to France. Chérif had been detained and arrested in 2008 for working with a terrorist cell that tried to recruit French citizens to fight in Iraq.
Police have told residents of Dammartin-en-Goële to remain indoors while they resolve the situation with the terrorists, and schools in the area were temporarily placed on lockdown. The situation is eerily reminiscent of the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers, which saw a similar city-wide shutdown take place as police moved in.
Dammartin-en-Goële is fairly close to Charles de Gaulle Airport, which serves as the main hub for all air traffic in and out of France. Two of the massive airport’s runways have been closed, but otherwise air traffic is proceeding as normal.
Meanwhile, earlier today a second hostage situation broke out at a kosher market on the Eastern edge of Paris.
At least two people have died following a clash between police and a man who took multiple hostages inside the market. This suspect reportedly told police “you know who I am,” likely a reference to their manhunt for the man who shot and killed police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe yesterday.
Police have identified the suspects in that shooting as Amedy Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene, but would not confirm if either was the one responsible for the incident at the supermarket.
Here is one witness’s account of the incident:
“There was an individual - African - who had a Kalashnikov...and he immediately went into the deli and he started shooting with his Kalashnikov. The latest news is that sadly apparently there are two dead. What is for sure is that colleagues that are there already saw six hostages that were controlled by this individual.”
