” Two people have been killed in a Kosher store in eastern Paris where a ‘heavily armed’ Islamic terrorist is currently holding as many as six hostages, police believe.
Sources in the Paris force said the suspected murderer was Amedy Coulibay, 32, who is wearing body armour and brandishing two Kalashnikov automatic weapons. He was said to have screamed: ‘You know who I am’ as he stormed the store.
He is understood to be working with a woman called Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who police claimed was ‘armed and dangerous’.
Shots rang out close to the Porte de Vincennes while the two brothers believed to be behind the murderous attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine were themselves hold up north of the capital.
‘ There is a hostage situation – shots have been fired,’ said a Paris police spokesman, who said up to five people were originally being held in Vincennes, and there were ‘believed to be two fatalities’.
A 20-year-old student is among the hostages taken at the kosher shop in Paris. The young woman, whose name remains unknown, called her uncle who works nearby from the basement of the building where she was being held.
There are also unconfirmed reports that there is a serious incident developing near the Trocadero in central Paris.
The siege at the grocery store occurred after the Charlie Hebdo killers in Dammartin-en-Goele – currently holed up with a hostage at a business premises – were believed to have made contact with an associate.
Police immediately scrambled phone signals in the area – but not before the killers were able to make their call.
It is now feared that Said Kouachi and his brother Cheriff contacted Amedy Coulibaly – and possibly ordered him to take hostages in a bid to force police to allow them to escape.
It is not known whether Boumeddiene was in the Kosher store with Coulibay.
It means that two sieges by suspected Islamic terrorists are playing out at the same time, as fears grew that they would be looking to cause another bloodbath.
Coulibay is believed to be the one responsible for shooting a policewoman dead in south Paris on Thursday.
The revelation has led police to link it to the murder of 12 people around the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine on Wednesday.
Clarissa Jean-Philippe, 27, was unarmed and directing traffic in Montrouge, in south Paris, when she was gunned down by Coulibay, who was still wearing body armour and using an automatic assault rifle.
The murderer has been identified by police who said he belonged to the Buttes Chaumont network, which sent Jihadi fighters to Iraq. “
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