Gunfire, explosion rock France after terror raid

BY Taiwo George

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Barely 24 hours after gunmen stormed the office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine in France, killing 12 people, disturbance has continued in the country.

While a policewoman and a municipal employee in Paris sustained serious injuries from gunshots fired at them by an unknown man, a bomb explosion occurred in a restaurant near a mosque in the Villefranche-sur-Saone city in the eastern part of the country on Thursday.

Wednesday’s attack left 12 people dead and some others injured, but details of Thursday’s incidents are still sketchy.

Though two brothers – Said and Cherif Kouachi (pictured) – have been detained in connection with the attack on Charlie Hebdo, Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister of France, said the gunman responsible for Thursday’s shooting was on the run.

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Cazeneuve, who rushed to the scene of the incident at Montrogue, a suburb in the south-west part of Paris, said the policewoman involved was fighting for her life but the AFP quoted sources as saying she had died.

Thousands of French citizens filed out to the streets to mourn the victims of the attack, which was described as the deadliest terror attack in France since 1961 during the Algerian war.

President Francois Hollande has condemned the act, urging the people not to allow it create disunity.

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“Today, it was the entire Republic that was attacked,” he said.

“We must recognse that our best weapon is our unity. Nothing can divide us, nothing must oppose us or separate us. Freedom will always be bigger than barbarism. Let us join together and we will win.”

Condolences have also poured in from leaders across the world.

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