Two brothers suspected of a bloody attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, were killed when police stormed their hideout on Friday, while a second siege ended with the deaths of four hostages.
The violent end to the simultaneous stand-offs followed a police operation of unprecedented scale as France tackled one of the worst threats to its internal security in decades. The heavy loss of life over three consecutive days also risked fuelling anti-immigrant voices in the country and elsewhere in the West.
Officials said Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said, both in their 30s, died when anti-terrorist forces moved in on a print shop in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the chief suspects in Wednesday’s attack had been holed up.
The hostage they had taken was safe, an official said.
Automatic gunfire rang out, followed by blasts and then silence as smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of the print shop.
Amid thick fog, a helicopter landed on the building’s roof, signalling the end of the assault. A government source said the brothers had emerged from the building and opened fire on police before they were killed.
Minutes later, police broke the second siege at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris.
A police union source said four hostages had died there along with a gunman, believed to have had links to the same Islamist group as the Kouachi brothers, who was holding them.
