Paris Manhunt Zeroes In On Small Town After Suspects Spotted
Police in France zeroed in on a small town about 40 miles north of Paris Thursday after witnesses reported seeing two suspects, matching the description of those involved in the Charlie Hebdo attack on Wednesday, at a local gas station.
The police authorities told Reuters that the two men were spotting wearing face masks at at gas station in the small town of Villers-Cotterets, about 43 miles north of the French capital.
Although local authorities have confirmed that police are zeroing in on the location, officials have not confirmed if the two men, suspected of being brothers, have sought refuge in a house in the northern town.
"It's an incessant waltz of police cars and trucks," Bruno Fortier, the mayor of neighboring Crépy-en-Valois, told Reuters.
A manhunt for two suspects involved in the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper continued on Thursday. The attack happened Wednesday morning when three masked gunmen stormed the newspaper's headquarters, killing ten employees, including the editor and cartoonists, as well as two police officers.
The third suspect, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, reportedly surrendered himself to police on Wednesday evening. The other two suspects, Said and Chérif Kouachi, 34 and 32, are still on the lam.
The manhunt for the two suspects on Thursday hit another strange snare when a female police officer was killed in the Parisian suburb of Montrouge during the nationwide manhunt. Officials in the region have described the female police officer's death as a terrorist attack, but have yet to connect it to the events of Wednesday at the Charlie Hebdo offices.
