Charlie Hebo attackGunmen, holding hostages, surrounded by police in small town outside of Paris

Published 9 January 2015

As we put today’s HSNW issue to bed (06:00 EST), the French security forces are surrounding a printing facility in Dammartin-en-Goële , Seine- et-Marne, where the two brothers who shot and killed twelve people in and around the offices of Charlie Hebdo Wednesday are holed up, holding one or more hostages. We will continue to update the story as events unfold.

As we put today’s HSNW issue to bed (06:00 EST), the French security forces are surrounding a printing facility in Dammartin-en-Goële , Seine- et-Marne, where the two brothers who shot and killed twelve people in and around the offices of Charlie Hebdo Wednesday are holed up, holding one or more hostages.

Dammartin-en-Goële, a small town of about 8,000 residents, is located twenty miles northeast of Paris.

Live reports on France’s TV5 show a massive police and military presence around the facility, with several helicopters hovering above and parked in a field nearby.  

President Francoise Hollande, surrounded by cabinet members at the Ministry of the Interior, addressed the nation as the French security forces were closing in on the two assailants at Dammartin-en-Goële:

La France a un Etat. C’est une force, c’est une garantie. Un Etat avec des fonctionnaires qui agissent au nom de l’intérêt général, en prenant bien conscience de leur mission. On voit bien aujourd’hui leur utilité: fonctionnaires de police, de gendarmerie, magistrats, fonctionnaires d’autorité, qui, dans la proximité, permettent au citoyen de trouver protection, une réponse, du secours.

(France has a state. It is a force, it is a guarantee. A state with officials who act on behalf of the public interest, fully aware of their mission. Today we see well their usefulness: Police, gendarmerie , magistrates, officials in authority who, nearby, allow citizens to find protection, response, relief)