Thursday, January 8, 2015

Mourad reportedly handed himself at a police station in Charleville Mézières

Police have arrested several suspects over the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, which killed 12 people.

The whole country has begun a day of official mourning for what Francois Hollande called "an act of exceptional barbarism. "Several [suspects] were held overnight,"  

France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls told RTL radio. Preventing another attack "is our main concern," he added. "The three attackers have been identified as Said Kouachi, 34, Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, police said. The names and photos of the Kouachi brothers were later officially released by the authorities.

 The 18-year-old Mourad reportedly handed himself in at a police station in Charleville Mézières after seeing his name on the list of shooting suspects shared on social networks. He claimed he was at college at the time the massacre happened in the headquarters of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in central Paris, reported French iTele.

Two other suspects have been tracked down in the Picardy region of northern France, sources say, according to AFP. The men were traveling in a Renault Clio, they were reportedly armed and wearing hoods, Le Parisien reported. The manager of a petrol station near Villers-Cotteret commune "recognized the two men suspected of having participated in the attack against Charlie Hebdo," sources close to the manhunt told AFP. One of the suspects who are still on the run, Chérif Kouachi, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008, reported Le Monde. He took part in a Paris-based group that recruited candidates to fight with jihadists in Iraq. He was also convicted on terror charges in 2010. In the meantime, French authorities have introduced the highest state of alert in the country. According to Valls, extra security forces were involved to secure mosques, synagogues, department stores, shopping centers, train stations and airports. The French PM added that an extra 650 soldiers and 2,000 more police officers will patrol the streets of Paris on Thursday. On Thursday Parisians gathered for a minute’s silence in front of Notre Dame in the city center to pay tribute to those killed and injured in the recent massacre

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