PARIS — French police are confronting two intense hostage standoffs
Friday, as two suspects in the terror attack on a satirical newspaper
were cornered in an industrial town northeast of Paris and a third
gunman was holding as many as five people at gunpoint at a kosher
supermarket in eastern Paris.
The French Interior Ministry has
denied an initial report by AFP news agency that two people were killed
at the supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes, according to France24. Reuters reported one person injured in the takeover.
In
an indication that the two events were related, the supermarket gunman
threatened to kill his hostages if police stormed the terrorist brothers
holed up in a printing warehouse, police told the Associated Press..
As
the dramatic events unfolded, French President Francois Hollande
convened a crisis meeting with top government officials at the
presidential palace, the BBC reports.
The simultaneous hostage-takings came as the intense manhunt for the two suspects in the mass killing at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper on Wednesday had been cornered in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, near Charles de Gaulle airport.
The
suspects, Cherif Kouachi, 32, and his older brother Said, 34, took
refuge in a small printing warehouse and seized at least one person
hostage, according to a town official.
The
two brothers are wanted for the killing of 12 people--including two
police officers--in retaliation for what they said was the publishing of
cartoons denigrating the prophet Mohammed.
No comments:
Post a Comment