Police Close In on Paris Suspects as Shots Fired, Hostages Taken
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Members of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group ride a helicopter over Dammartin-en-Goele in France, on Jan. 9, 2015.
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French police closed in on the suspects in the massacre of journalists at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo as operations began in a town northeast of Paris.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said special forces are being deployed to confront the two suspects who have been at large since they fled after killing 12 people at the magazine’s offices in Paris on Jan. 7.
The comments came as RTL Radio reported that shots were fired in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, 26 miles northeast of central Paris and 8.4 miles northeast of the city’s main airport, Charles de Gaulle, in France’s Seine-et-Marne department. Hostages were taken at a business there, it said, adding that a car was stolen this morning in Montagny-Sainte-Felicite, a nearby town.
“An operation is currently under way in Dammartin-en-Goele and special police forces are being deployed,” Cazeneuve said in televised comments. “The operations will be conducted in the coming hours and minutes. All of the ministry’s forces, police forces, are mobilized.”
Yesterday, elite counter-terrorist police surrounded three hamlets 70 kilometers (44 miles) northeast of Paris in an effort to find Said Kouachi, 34, and his 32-year-old brother Cherif. The villages –- Corcy, Fleury, and Longpont –- border a dense forest larger than the city of Paris.
A special forces police officer drives an armored vehicle outside Longpont today.
France has been in the midst of one of the largest manhunts in its history after masked men brandishing Kalashnikov assault weapons shot at people at the magazine’s offices. Famous for its biting commentary and cheeky -- often offensive -- cartoons, Charlie Hebdo had earlier in the day tweeted a cartoon of an Islamic State emir.
Tensions mounted yesterday after a policewoman was shot and killed just outside Paris, although there’s no indication the incident is connected to the earlier attack.
Aeroports de Paris, the manager of the city’s airports, said it is rerouting flights so that they don’t pass over the area affected by the police operations.
