TheCable

France experienced another bout of gunshots on Friday when the police closed in on suspects of the Charlie Hebdo magazine office massacre.

According to BBC, a police operation is underway in Dammartin-en-Goele, a town some 35km away from Paris where the suspects are believed to be hiding.

The police is on the move to detain the said suspects, who killed 12 people at the magazine on Wednesday.

Bernard Cazeneuve, the nation’s interior minister, confirmed that the ongoing operation is targeted at capturing the suspects.

Armed with AK-47, two black hooded men unleashed mayhem at the magazine office in Paris.

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

Police have declared wanted Amedy Coulibaly, 32, and Hayat Boumeddiene, 26 in connection with Thursday’s incident.

However, shots were fired during a high-speed car chase earlier on Friday.

A witness said it appeared as if the suspects hijacked a car in the town of Montagny-Sainte-Felicite before travelling on to Dammartin.

The car owner was said to have recognised them as brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, the key suspects of Wednesday’s incident.

An interior ministry official noted that there had been no deaths or injuries on Friday but that students in three schools near the industrial zone where the suspects were, have been taken to a gymnasium, where they will be handed over to their parents.

In another development, a cleric from the Islamic State group claimed that the radical militia was responsible for the deadly attack on the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Abu Saad al-Ansari said this in a sermon in the Islamic State-controlled Iraqi city of Mosul.

“We started with the France operation for which we take responsibility,” he said.

“Tomorrow will be in Britain, America and others.

“This is a message to all countries participating in the US-led coalition that has killed Islamic State members.”

People in the area say police helicopters began arriving around 08:45 (07:45 GMT) followed by convoys of armed officers. Sharpshooters could be seen taking up position on rooftops.

The security situation has affected flights at the main airport in Paris, which is in the vicinity. Officials at Paris Charles de Gaulle say they have changed landing and take-off patterns for aircraft in the light of the security situation.