New Shootout in Paris - Policewoman Kena Gunned Down
Paris on Edge as New Shootout Adds to Charlie Hebdo Attack Angst By Gregory Viscusi and Marie Mawad Jan 8, 2015 8:47 PM GMT+0800 <!--[if (!IE)|(gte IE 8)]-->
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Photographer: Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images Armed police patrol the Gare de L'Est railway station on in Paris on Jan. 8, 2015.
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Photographer: Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images Armed police patrol the Gare de L'Est railway station on in Paris on Jan. 8, 2015.
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Armed police patrol the Gare de L'Est railway station on in Paris on Jan. 8, 2015.
Source: prefecturedepolice.fr via Bloomberg French police released pictures of two brothers, identifying them as Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, and warning that they are armed and dangerous.
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French police released pictures of two brothers, identifying them as Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, and...
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Photographer: Francois Nascimbeni/AFP/Getty Images Police are seen during an operation in the "Croix-Rouge" suburb of Reims, northern France early Jan. 8, 2015 following the attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead in Paris.
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Police are seen during an operation in the "Croix-Rouge" suburb of Reims, northern France early Jan. 8, 2015...
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Photographer: Gent Shkullaku/AFP via Getty Images Albanian journalists hold pictures of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists, from left to right, Jean Cabut aka Cabu, Charb and Tignous during a gathering in solidarity with the victims of the terror attack in Paris earlier today, in Tirana on Jan. 7, 2015.
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Albanian journalists hold pictures of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists, from left to right, Jean...
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Photographer: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images French President Francois Hollande arrives at the headquarters of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris today.
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French President Francois Hollande arrives at the headquarters of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris today.
Photographer: Martin Bureau/AFP via Getty Images Police forces gather in a street outside the offices of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris today.
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Police forces gather in a street outside the offices of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris today.
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</section>Paris was on edge as a shooting south of the city today claimed the life of a policewoman and the hunt intensified for two of the perpetrators of yesterday’s massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
As hundreds of police and soldiers patrolled airports, schools and cultural sites like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, a suspect package at the Gare du Nord resulted in the evacuation of the station and streets around the Presidential Elysee Palace were blocked by security officers in body armour.
Rumors of armed men, shootouts, explosions and bomb threats made their rounds on social media and over the airwaves, and police guarded the main gateways to the capital, creating an atmosphere of a city under siege. One of the deadliest attacks since World War II at the heart of Europe is bringing with it an environment of fear to France and the region.
“We are confronting an exceptional risk that can lead at any moment to other instances of violence,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Europe 1 radio.
Slideshow: 'Je Suis Charlie' Goes Global as Crowds Rally for Victims
Cazeneuve said today that seven people are being questioned in connection with the attacks yesterday, with the two suspected perpetrators -- brothers Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, -- on the run. They are armed and dangerous, police said.
The youngest suspect in the attack turned himself in, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor said. The 18-year-old may have been confused with another person. Classmates tweeted that yesterday that he was at his high school in Charleville-Mezieres, 230 kilometers (135 miles) from Paris, and that he has nothing to do with radical Islam.
At least 12 people died at the weekly Charlie Hebdo office in eastern Paris, and 11 people were injured. No link has been established between those killings and today’s shootout just outside the capital, police said.
[h=2]Police Protection[/h]The tragedy spurred outrage from leaders around the world, including the heads of Muslim nations and organizations.
Police had seen no indication that the two suspected assailants were planning an imminent assault, according to Cazeneuve. Cherif Kouachi had served time in prison for participating in a jihadist recruitment cell.
Earlier, AFP reported that anti-terror forces raided a site in the northeastern city of Reims -- about 90 miles from Paris. The police didn’t comment when contacted by Bloomberg.
The country was put on the highest terrorist alert, with protection extended to places of worship and media outlets. The assault was carried out by two masked men brandishing AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles, with at least one shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic.
[h=2]‘Exceptional Barbarity’[/h]“France is in a state of shock after this terrorist attack,” said President
Francois Hollande. “An act of exceptional barbarity has been perpetrated against a newspaper, against liberty of expression, against journalists.”
The attacks threaten to stoke Islamophobia in a country that has the biggest Muslim population in Europe and may bolster support for the anti-immigration National Front party. Thousands of people flocked into town squares across France last night to defend what they said were values dear to them.
“I came here to show we don’t cede to terror,” said Elie Benchimol, 23, an economics student who was at the Place de la Republique in Paris. “France must continue to define itself as a country of freedom of expression and rule of law.”
The dead included eight journalists, a guest at the weekly, a maintenance man and two policemen. The magazine’s most renowned cartoonists -- Cabu, Charb, Tignous and Wolinski -- were among those killed.
[h=2]Toulouse Murders[/h]France’s last major terrorist violence came in 1995, when bombings struck public places between July and October, including the Saint Michel metro station in the heart of Paris. Bombs also exploded in the Place de l’Etoile.
In all, eight were killed and about 200 were injured. The bombings were blamed on an Algerian rebel group.
In 2012, Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, murdered seven people, including three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse.
“We can’t accept this madness,” Dalil Boubakeur, the Paris Mosque’s rector, said yesterday. “We want to live in peace.”
Famous for its biting commentary, irreverent, often offensive cartoons, the magazine earlier yesterday
tweeted a cartoon of an Islamic State emir,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Its offices were firebombed in November 2011 after it published a special edition featuring the Prophet Muhammad as a “guest editor.” The fire caused no injuries.
Charlie Hebdo’s cover this week is on “Submission,” a new book by
Michel Houellebecq that’s sparking controversy with its depiction of a fictional France of the future led by an Islamic party and a Muslim president who bans women from the workplace.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at
[email protected]; Marie Mawad in Paris at
[email protected] Alan Crawford at
[email protected] Vidya Root, Anne Swardson
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