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https://scmp.com/news/world/article/1677755/france-mourns-police-hunt-charlie-hebdo-gunmen
World

France mourns victims in Charlie Hebdo attack as police hunt gunmen

100,000 people take to the streets nationwide following massacre at magazine and amid a manhunt for 'armed and dangerous' suspects

Demonstrators hold signs reading "Je Suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) outside the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

France remained on high alert yesterday as security forces desperately hunted two brothers suspected of murdering 12 people at a satirical magazine and two mosques were attacked in an apparent backlash following the Islamist terror attack.

Tensions were also fuelled after a gunman shot dead a policewoman and wounded a city employee with an automatic rifle just to the south of Paris. It was not known if the incident was linked to Wednesday's targeting of the Charlie Hebdo office in the French capital, the worst attack on French soil for decades.

A huge manhunt focused on the northeastern town of Villers-Cotterets yesterday after the discovery of one of the getaway cars. Earlier reports said that the two fugitives, still armed, had been spotted at a petrol station in the area.

As world leaders expressed their outrage, President Xi Jinping said: "Terrorism is a common enemy of all mankind and a common threat to the entire international community, including both China and France."

Yesterday, France fell silent to honour the victims on what French President Francois Hollande had declared was a national day of mourning.

Bells tolled at the stroke of midday, public transport stopped and people gathered outside the headquarters of the magazine in the pouring rain, holding aloft banners reading "Je Suis Charlie" (I am Charlie), which has become a defiant rallying cry following the shootings.

At least 500 French citizens and Hongkongers held a candlelight vigil in Wan Chai for the victims of the massacre. A minute's silence was followed by a spontaneous chorus of the French national anthem La Marseillaise.

Betty Grisoni, a public relations consultant and French national, said: "What happened touched the core of what France is all about."

Jitendra Joshi, president of Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club, said the association was "deeply shocked" by Wednesday's killings.

The shootings triggered demonstrations of solidarity around the world and more than 100,000 poured onto the streets of France. Hollande called the bloodbath "an act of exceptional barbarity".

But more than 24 hours after the brazen assault, the masked, black-clad gunmen - who shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is great) while killing nine journalists, a maintenance worker and two policemen - were still on the loose.

Watch: Mourning and manhunt after magazine office massacre  

Police issued arrest warrants for Cherif Kouachi, 32, convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq, and his 34-year-old brother Said. Both were born in Paris.

The two men were likely to be "armed and dangerous", authorities warned. Hamyd Mourad, an 18-year-old suspected of being an accomplice in the attack, handed himself in.

Charlie Hebdo, which has repeatedly lampooned the Prophet Mohammed, said it would publish one million copies - 17 times its normal print run - of its edition next week despite the decimation of its staff.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Xinhua. Additional reporting by Danny Lee