Police Hunting Suspects Lock Down Town

Latest updates at 7:41 a.m. ET

• Brandet tweeted that negotiating teams have tried to establish contact with the extremists inside a Dammartin-en-Goele building.

• There had been no assault, nor any injuries or deaths, as of 1 p.m. (7 a.m. ET), the Interior Ministry spokesman added.

• A salesman, who identified himself only as Didier, told France Info radio that he shook one of the gunman’s hands as they arrived around 8:30 a.m. Friday at a Dammartin-en-Goele printing business — the same place where the Kouachi brothers are believed to be surrounded. Didier told the public radio station that he first thought the man, who was dressed in black and heavily armed, was a police officer.

As he left, the armed man said, “Go, we don’t kill civilians.” Didier said, “It wasn’t normal. I did not know what was going on.”

• The two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack spoke to officers by phone and said they wanted to die as martyrs, according to a French member of parliament for the district where a police operation is taking place. Yves Albarello, who is in the Dammartin-en-Goele area, was speaking on French channel iTele.

• Dammartin-en-Goele residents have been told to stay inside, and schools are on lockdown, the mayor’s media office told CNN on Friday.

• The principal of a local primary school told CNN that police operations in the town began just before 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET). Parents who came to get their children have been told to stay inside. Shops in the town have been told to close, she said….(read more)

Developing…

CNN.com

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