Paris defiant as police track killers
UPDATED: An 18-year-old implicated alongside two brothers in the bloody attack against a satirical weekly in Paris has surrendered to police, according to a source close to the case.
“Hamyd Mourad handed himself in to police … on Wednesday at 11pm after seeing his name circulating on social media,” the source said.
“He has been arrested and taken into custody,” another source confirmed.
Earlier French police said they had identified three men as suspects in the deadly attack.
The two other men were named as brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both French nationals in their early 30s.
A raid by France’s elite anti-terrorist unit is under way in the northeastern city of Reims as part of the hunt for the gunmen who attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Either the suspects will be able to escape, or “there will be a showdown”, said a member of the unit, urging journalists at the scene to remain “vigilant”.
Earlier French police said they had identified three men as suspects in the deadly attack, which began when heavily armed men shouting “Allahu Akbar” stormed the Paris headquarters of a satirical weekly.
They killed 12 people in the worst attack in France in decades.
The assault on Charlie Hebdo headquarters in a quiet Paris neighbourhood sparked a massive man hunt as two gunmen managed to escape, executing a wounded police officer as they fled.
The atrocity has sparked defiant, pro-free speech rallies across France and in other European cities.
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More than 100,000 people have gathered across France to pay tribute to the victims, while thousands also rallied in other European cities and the “I Am Charlie” hashtag swept the internet.
With the gunmen still on the loose in Paris after killing 12 people, defiant crowds swarmed into the Place de la Republique, barely a kilometre from the scene of the bloodbath at the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly.
At least 35,000 held vigils in Paris, and some 20,000 people turned out in the French cities of Lyon and Toulouse, police said. Thousands more took to the streets in cities including Bordeaux and Marseille.
There were also rallies in European cities such as Berlin, London and Lausanne.
Many demonstrators wore black stickers with the words “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie), a slogan aimed at showing solidarity with the victims of the deadliest attack in France in decades and in support of the paper’s decision to print controversial prophet Mohammed cartoons.
Others waved banners with slogans such as “Press freedom has no price” and “Charb mort libre” (Charb died free), a reference to the newspaper’s slain editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier.
Charbonnier was one of four cartoonists killed in the attack that also left 11 people injured.
Prosecutors said witnesses heard the gunmen shout “we have avenged the prophet” and “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) as they carried out the attack.
Police said the calm, calculated manner of the assault showed they were highly trained.
Victims included four prominent cartoonists, including the chief editor, who had been holding a morning meeting when the assailants armed with Kalashnikovs burst in and opened fire, officials said.
President Francois Hollande immediately rushed to the scene of what he called “an act of exceptional barbarism” and “undoubtedly a terrorist attack”.
Amateur video shot after the bloodbath showed two men masked and dressed head-to-toe in black military style running toward a wounded policeman as he lay on the pavement.
The attacker says “you wanted to kill me?” before shooting the officer in the head execution style.
The gunmen then climb into their getaway vehicle and drive off.
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Large numbers of police and ambulances rushed to the scene, where shocked residents spilled into the streets. Reporters saw bullet-riddled windows and people being carried out on stretchers.
Two police were confirmed among the dead and four people were critically injured.
The attack took place at a time of heightened fears in France and other European capitals over fallout from the wars in Iraq and Syria, where hundreds of European citizens have gone to fight alongside the radical Islamic State group.
One man, who witnessed the attack, described a scene like “in a movie”.
“I saw them leaving and shooting. They were wearing masks. These guys were serious,” said the man who declined to give his name. “At first I thought it was special forces chasing drug traffickers or something.”
An employee at a nearby daycare centre said he was walking with children when panic erupted.
“People leaned out of the window and yelled at me to get off the pavement,” he said.
“We got out of there very fast,” said Jean-Paul Chevalier, 56. “People were panicking. I heard shooting.”
Hollande called for “national unity”, adding that “several terrorist attacks had been foiled in recent weeks”.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the shooting as an “unspeakable atrocity”.
In a post on Twitter on Thursday, Abbott condemned the attack.
“If you don’t like something, you don’t read it; you don’t kill people you disagree with,” the tweet said.
The attack comes less than a month after lone gunman Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage during a deadly siege in a Sydney cafe.
Monis and two of his hostages, Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson were killed during the violent conclusion to the December siege.
US President Barack Obama condemned the attack, while British Prime Minister David Cameron called it “sickening”.
The satirical newspaper attacked on Wednesday gained notoriety in 2006 when it reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had originally appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, causing fury across the Muslim world.
Its offices were also fire-bombed in November 2011 when it published a cartoon of Mohammed under the title “Sharia Hebdo”.
Despite being taken to court under anti-racism laws, the weekly continued to publish controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet.
– with AAP and AFP
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