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Paris kosher market seized in second hostage drama in nervous France Paris kosher market seized in second hostage drama in nervous France
(about 1 hour later)
PARIS — A gunman seized a kosher grocery store Friday and took hostages in a second standoff as officials outside the French capital surrounded the country’s most-wanted terrorist suspects. PARIS — A gunman seized a kosher grocery store Friday and took hostages in a second standoff as police outside the French capital surrounded the country's most-wanted terrorist suspects.
The AFP news agency reported at least two people were killed. There were conflicting reports about whether anyone had been killed at the store. The Agence France-Presse news agency earlier reported that at least two people were killed.
French media said at least five people were taken captive. The Associated Press, citing police sources, said there were “multiple” hostages. French media said at least five people were taken captive. It was not immediately clear whether the hostage-taking was linked to this week's bloodshed that has put the country on edge.
It was not immediately clear whether the hostage-taking was linked to this week’s bloodshed that has put the country on edge. “I have learned with horror of a hostage-taking that has started at Porte de Vincennes and am going there immediately,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.
But the suspect in the fatal shooting of a policewoman on Thursday remained at large. Authorities also said there appeared to be a “connection” between the slaying and the terrorist storming of a satirical newspaper on Wednesday that left 12 people dead, AFP reported. But suspects in the fatal shooting of a policewoman on Thursday remained at large. Authorities also said there appeared to be a “connection” between the slaying and the terrorist storming of a satirical newspaper on Wednesday that left 12 people dead, AFP reported.
Riot police set up positions near the grocery in Porte de Vincennes on the eastern outskirts of Paris. Helicopters passed overhead, and ambulances raced to the scene. Hayat Boumeddiene, a 26-year-old woman, and Amedy Coulibaly, a 32-year-old man, are “suspected to be armed and dangerous,” according to the French police, and are being sought in connection with the Thursday killing of a female police officer in Paris. The police said they believe the killing was a “terrorist enterprise.”
According to a police source cited by France 24 television, at least one person had been wounded at the store Hyper Cacher, or Hyper Kosher. Several ambulances were seen rushing toward the grocery store, where the hostage-taking took place hours before the Jewish Sabbath started on Friday night, a particularly busy time for a kosher shop.
Outside Paris, thousands of police cornered the two suspects in the attack at the newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Riot police set up positions near the grocery in the Porte de Vincennes neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Paris. Helicopters passed overhead, and ambulances raced to the scene.
According to a police source cited by France 24 television, at least one person was wounded at the store Hyper Cacher, or Hyper Kosher.
Outside the capital, thousands of police cornered the two suspects in Wednesday’s attack on the offices of the Paris weekly newspaper, Charlie Hebdo.
Like the two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack, Coulibaly appears to have been well-known to French authorities for years before Thursday’s killing of the policewoman on a quiet Paris street.
Starting in 2001, Coulibaly was repeatedly held for crimes ranging from theft to drug trafficking, according to French media reports. In 2013, he was sentenced to five years in prison for involvement in an attempt to help another militant Islamist, Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, escape from prison, Paris newspapers reported.
Blocks from the grocery store siege, Jewish and Muslim residents of the low-slung, middle-class neighborhood of Porte de Vincennes stood anxiously together behind police lines, awaiting news.
Two women who worked at the store sobbed as they frantically dialed the numbers of friends. They had been off work when the gunman entered. One said she received a call from a colleague who could only get out the words “people are shooting” before the line was cut. She has not been able to reach him since.
“It’s normal grocery store — everyone goes there,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.
“It’s a kosher store, but not only Jews go there. I go there,” said Malik Zadi, a 25-year-old Muslim of Algerian heritage. “In this neighborhood, there are Muslims, Jews, Christians. It’s like Paris. It’s a melting pot. Cohabitation.”
Sam Cohen, a 22-year-old Jewish resident who is also of Algerian heritage, said members of the community get along well together — regardless of faith.
But he said he worried that the attacks of the past three days have unleashed a wave of violence with no end.
“This is only the beginning for what’s awaiting France,” said Cohen, who wore a black hoodie and a black kippah. “Everyone’s going to grab a weapon, and there will be more and more dead every day.”