The two cold-blooded brothers who slaughtered 12 people at a French satirical magazine were holed up with a hostage inside a printing house — defiant to the end as they told police they “want to die as martyrs.”
Authorities have reportedly cornered Cherif and Said Kouachi in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele northeast of Paris, a few miles from Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Meanwhile, the gunman who killed a policewoman in Paris on Thursday may have wounded one person and taken at least five others hostage in eastern Paris, the Daily Mail reported.
A police source told Reuters the man who killed the officer, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, and fled was a member of the same Islamist group as the two murderous brothers.
Yves Albarello, a local politican, told iTELE the two brothers had let it be known they wanted to die as martyrs, Reuters reported.
The brothers are “almost certainly” the hostage takers, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre Henri Brandet said, CNN reported.
A nearby school was evacuated after the suspects agreed to allow the children safe passage, town spokeswoman Audrey Taupenas told the Associated Press.
Cops earlier were on hot pursuit of a hijacked car along a main road heading toward Paris when gunshots rang out and the suspects abandoned their car in the town of about 8,000 residents, Reuters reported.
View videoCharles de Gaulle Airport closed two runways to arrivals to avoid interfering in the tense standoff and the town appealed to residents to stay inside during the siege at the CTF Creation Tendance Decouverte printing house.
Christelle Alleume, who works nearby, said gunfire interrupted her coffee break Friday morning.
“We heard shots and we returned very fast because everyone was afraid,” she told i-Tele. “We had orders to turn off the lights and not approach the windows.”
Thousands of security forces have been hunting the heavily armed, slippery brothers after their methodic rampage Wednesday at Charlie Hebdo, where they slaughtered a dozen people, including the chief editor.
The carnage was payback for its publication of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
It’s believed the suspects robbed a service station in Villers-Cotterêts, stealing fuel and food, according to multiple French media reports.
The two brothers, born in Paris to Algerian parents, had been eyed by French authorities long before the magazine massacre and were on the American no-fly list.
Cherif, a former pizza deliveryman, was convicted of terrorism charges in 2008 in connection to his ties to a network sending jihadis to fight US forces in Iraq. Said had traveled to Yemen, though it was unclear if he intended to join extremist groups, officials said.
A third suspect, Mourad Hamyd, 18, surrendered Wednesday evening after hearing his name linked to the attacks. His relationship to the Kouachi brothers was unclear.
Charlie Hebdo remains undaunted by the tragedy and plans a special edition next week.
