PARIS. – French media reports that two brothers suspected to be involved in Wednesday’s attack on a satirical newspaper have been killed in a police operation at Dammartin-en-Goele.
However, a police source said at least four other hostages had been killed at a separate siege at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris.
The two brothers died when security forces moved in on a print works in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the chief suspects in Wednesday’s attack had been holed up with their hostage.
The alleged attackers – brothers identified as 32-year-old Said Kouachi and 34-year-old Cherif Kouachi – had been cornered by police inside a printing house with a hostage in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris.
Police said they are French-born sons of Algerian-born parents.
French security forces had earlier poured into the small industrial town near Charles de Gaulle International Airport after the suspects hijacked a car early yesterday in a nearby town.
The two brothers had told police that they “want to die as martyrs”, quoting a local politician.
They were holding a man hostage, who reportedly survived the police raid.
Meanwhile, an armed man who had taken several people hostage at a kosher grocery store in Porte De Vincennes, and reportedly threatened to kill the hostages if police launched an assault on the Kouachi brothers, has also been killed in a police raid.
French President Francois Hollande had held a meeting with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Friday amid the police operations.
Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport closed two runways to arrivals amid the police operation in Dammartin-en-Goele town close to the airport.
But an airport spokesperson said the flight diversions did not affecting schedules.
The latest developments came as heavily armed anti-terrorism police swooped on residential areas of the town in an extensive manhunt for two brothers suspected of being behind killing at the satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo .
Al Jazeera’s Laurence Lee, reporting from Dammartin-en-Goele, about 30km northeast of Paris, said the entire area was under lockdown amid multiple reports filtering through of the men’s where-abouts in the area. It is also understood that the men may have taken a hostage.
“Police have sealed the area as part of their attempt to isolate and sterilise the area. People have been told to stay in their offices and not move around,” our correspondent said.
Hollande rushed to an interior ministry meeting to be briefed on the situation as Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared that France was at “war” with terrorism, but “not in a war against religion”.
“It will without doubt be necessary to take measures” to respond to the terrorist “threat”, he said.
In a news conference on Thursday, the interior minister said the younger brother was known to French security forces, adding that he had had links to Al-Qaeda in 2004 and 2005.
He added that Said Kouachi had been under security survelliance.
Police also said that the fatal shooting of a policewoman in Montrouge, south of Paris, on Thursday was linked to Wednesday’s shooting at the newspaper’s office.
Another city employee was also seriously wounded in that shooting by a man wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying a handgun and automatic rifle.
Earlier, police said that Kouachi was imprisoned for 18 months for trying to travel to Iraq to fight for armed groups.
Nine people have so far been detained in relation to the investigation, Cazeneuve also said.
Four cartoonists working with the publication, including the editor Stephane Charbonnier, known as “Charb”, were among the dead. The other cartoonists killed were known as Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski.
Charlie Hebdo’s depictions of Islam, including the Prophet Muhammad, had drawn condemnation and threats before. It was firebombed in 2011 – although it also satirised other religions as well as political figures.
Wednesday’s attack triggered global outrage and condemnation.
Hollande said it was a “terrorist act of exceptional barbarism”, adding that other attacks have been thwarted in France in recent weeks. – Al Jazeera/ Agencies.