7:45 PM (IST): The exact number of hostages was unclear. Local media spoke of at least five. The police source said the man was equipped with automatic weapons.
7:30 PM (IST): Police immediately cordoned off the area and a helicopter was flying overhead. Local media said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was rushing to the scene.
7:00 PM (IST): Several people were taken hostage at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris on Friday after a shootout involving a man armed with two guns, a police source said.
6:30 PM (IST): There were unconfirmed local media reports that the man was the same as the one suspected of killing a policewoman in a southern suburb of Paris on Thursday. A police source had told Reuters earlier he was a member of the same group as the two suspects in Wednesday’s attack at weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre were holding a hostage Friday in a commercial building in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, according to the French media.
There were reports on French TV of at least one hostage being held near the factory, and Yves Albarello, a member of parliament for Siene-et-Marne, said the suspected man told negotiators they “want to die as martyrs.”
A police operation is currently under way in the area, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement.
An elite unit of the Gendarmerie is in place and will carry out an operation, added the minister.
According to the television channel RTL, the suspects, who are brothers of Algerian parentage, have entrenched themselves in a company office in the town and have taken a hostage.
At around 7.40 a.m. GMT, the two men stole a vehicle belonging to a woman in the town of Montagny-Sainte-Felicite and identified themselves as the Kouachi brothers who are wanted for the attack Wednesday on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris in which 12 people died.
A few minutes later, there was a shootout with police in Dammartin-en-Goele.
A witness quoted by RTL said he had heard two shots, and helicopters arrived soon after along with the security forces who ordered residents to stay in their homes and keep their windows closed.
In a related development, the minister said that the investigation into the murder of a woman police officer in Montrouge, south of Paris, Thursday has also made significant progress in the last few hours.