The brothers suspected of carrying out a terror attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a gunman who stormed a kosher market in Paris were reportedly dead Friday after police simultaneously stormed the sites where the attackers separately took hostages.
Police surrounded a printing business in Dammartin-en-Goele, a town northeast of Paris near Charles de Gualle airport, after Charlie Hebdo suspects Cherif and Said Kouachi took one hostage there.
Gunfire and explosions were later reported outside the building. The Kouachi brothers prompted the police assault when they came outside firing, an anonymous security official told the Associated Press.
The Agence France-Presse and Le Monde reported that the brothers were dead. Authorities have not officially confirmed the deaths.
Their hostage has been freed, the AFP reported.
Explosions were concurrently reported at the site of a second hostage situation in Paris. Security forces swarmed a kosher market in eastern Paris after a gunman, identified as Amedy Coulibaly by at least one police official, killed two people and took five hostages there.
BREAKING: Gunfire and new explosions heard at the site of hostage-taking in eastern Paris: Reuters reporter http://t.co/3B69JzccUW
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) January 9, 2015
That suspect was dead, Le Monde and the Agence France-Presse reported. Four hostages were also killed in the raid, according to French radio station France Info, Sky News and Reuters.
Authorities have not officially confirmed any deaths in the raid on the kosher market.
Earlier Friday, police released the name and photograph of Coulibaly and his girlfriend as suspects in the fatal shooting Thursday of a female police officer just outside Paris. It’s unclear whether the girlfriend, Hayet Boumddiene, was inside the kosher market during the hostage situation and raid.
Police freed several other hostages in the aftermath, including a child:
Several hostages freed at Jewish supermarket in Paris including a child (R). Photo Thomas Samson #AFP pic.twitter.com/b6ikL2BYyy
— AFP Photo Department (@AFPphoto) January 9, 2015
Watch live as the situation develops:
This post has been updated.
Sounds like the situation is being resolved.
One of the french news agencies is saying that the hostages that the brothers took has been freed.
No other confirmation yet.
How nice for them…
Wonder how the Honeyed virgins is working out for them?
Ask their compatriot in the grocery store – he’s been eliminated too.
Martyrdom by cop.