A massive hunt was launched Friday for the only surviving suspect from the two standoff scenes in France, who may have escaped, police union spokesman Pascal Disant said.
Hayat Boumeddiene, a 26-year-old woman, allegedly was the accomplice of Amedy Coulibaly, 32, in a hostage-taking incident at a kosher grocery store in eastern Paris.
Four civilians were killed by a gunman in the hostage standoff before police stormed the market, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters Friday. Two police officers were also wounded in the raid, he said.
Coulibaly was killed in the police operation, authorities said.
Boumeddiene may have eluded capture during the confusion as the freed hostages were running away, Disant said.
At almost the same time, the other pair of suspects, Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, were killed in a police operation in Dammartin-en-Goele, near the Charles de Gaulle Airport northeast of Paris.
The Kouachis, who were brothers and the suspects in the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo magazine office Wednesday in Paris, had been cornered at a printing business in the town, according to the mayor of a nearby town.
During the hostage-taking scenario allegedly involving Boumeddiene and Coulibaly, they had demanded the freedom of the Kouachi brothers, Disant said.
Some police were injured in the operation at the grocery, and at least 10 hostages escaped, according to Disant.
The hostages being held at the market near Porte de Vincennes are alive, and “the terrorist is dead,” tweeted Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States.
During the police operation, officers shouted “get down!” and “we’ve got him,” video from CNN affiliate BFMTV shows.
President François Hollande praised police but noted continuing dangers for the country, without specifying those perils.
“France is not done with threats that are targeting (the country),” Hollande said in a televised address to the nation.
Photos purportedly of Boumeddiene
Boumeddiene and Coulibaly lived together, a Western intelligence source told CNN.
The French newspaper Le Monde posted photos purporting to show Boumeddiene wearing a niqab in 2010 and holding a weapon that appears to be a crossbow in a rural setting. A niqab is a head-to-toe black covering, except for the eyes.
Another photo shows her pointing the weapon at the camera, but her face is obscured by the niqab, with only her eyes exposed.
CNN has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the photos.
In one of the photos, Boumeddiene in a niqab is posing nearly cheek-to-cheek with Coulibaly in what the newspaper called a selfie.
Coulibaly holds a pistol in a firing pose in one photo.
In another, Boumeddiene is kneeling and readies to fire the crossbow-like weapon. In that photo, her black niqab allows her face and hands to be exposed, but her face can only be seen in profile.
