According to Skynews, Commandos stormed the supermarket minutes after two brothers behind the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo magazine were killed at a second siege on the outskirts of Paris.
At least four hostages and a jihadist gunman have been killed in a deadly Paris supermarket siege.
At least four hostages and a jihadist gunman have been killed in a deadly Paris supermarket siege.
The special force team
raided the shop as the gunman began his evening prayer.
Six explosions were heard
at the Jewish supermarket in Porte de Vincennes and several hostages were seen
running, or being carried, from the store.
At least one of those being
carried out was a small child. Fifteen hostages were freed alive.
It was initially hoped that
all hostages in the shop had been saved - but it is now clear that a number
died.
Others have been critically
wounded, including a police officer.
Reports in the French media
suggested that at least some of the hostages were killed before the raid.
Reports that a gunman may
have escaped from the siege were dismissed as "unlikely" by
officials.
The hostage-taker at the
Paris store was linked to the killer brothers who were holding another hostage
at a commercial building at Dammartin-en-Goele, near to Charles de Gaulle
airport.
The supermarket gunman -
named as Amedy Coulibaly - had threatened to kill the hostages if police moved
in on the brothers at Dammartin.
He told a French TV station
that he was a member of the Islamic State group and was in cahoots with the
Charlie Hebdo killers who were his "officers".
In a telling detail,
revealed by BFMTV, the supermarket attacker did not hang up the phone properly
after talking to its reporters, allowing the police to overhear him.
And it was as he knelt to
do his evening prayer that they stormed the building.
"We heard four very
quick explosions that lasted between them seven seconds I suspect."
There were another two
explosions shortly afterwards.
Minutes later hostages were
pictured being carried out, or running out, of the market - as sirens wailed
across the city.
Sources reported that
police managed to hack video surveillance at the market to keep a close eye on
what was happening inside.
It is also understood that
officers were secretly communicating by phone with one of the hostages.
It is understood that
police may have managed to close down communication between the hostage-takers
in the two sieges.
In press conferences in
Paris after the drama, France's president Francois Hollande and Interior
Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised the bravery of police.
Mr Hollande said France had
demonstrated, and would continue to demonstrate, that it was not frightened of
terrorism.
"Long live the
Republic and long live France," he said.
Skynews
What is happening to France these days? Smh.... My condolences.
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