PARIS, France — The attack Wednesday on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris touched off three days of terror in France as authorities staged an intensive manhunt for the suspects. On Friday, security forces moved in on two brothers holed up in a building north of Paris, while a hostage standoff linked to the Hebdo attackers ended when police stormed in, killing one of two suspects.
Wednesday morning
About 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, gunmen dressed in black and wearing bulletproof vests forced their way into a building two doors down from Charlie Hebdo, asking where to find the magazine.
They then headed to the correct building, where they killed an officer on security detail, officials say. They later encountered a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist who was on her way out of the building and demanded she lead them to the offices. Once there, she is told to enter a security code to open its fortified door, according to the newspaper.
The gunmen barged in during a lunchtime editorial meeting, separating men and women and calling out the names of employees they intended to kill, according to said Dr. Gerald Kierzek, a physician who treated wounded patients and spoke with survivors.
He described the gunfire as a precision execution.
The gunmen said they were avenging the Prophet Mohammed and shouted “Allahu akbar,” which translates to “God is great,” Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said.
Some workers managed to flee to the rooftop and record video as the attackers left and fired on police.
A short time later, the gunmen opened fire as a police car blocked their way. More than a dozen bullets were shot into the patrol car. The attackers escaped.
The gunmen drove a few more blocks before encountering an officer along a Parisian boulevard. They executed him on the sidewalk.
In all, 12 people die the attack.
Wednesday night
Thousands of Parisians took to the streets Wednesday night and held a defiant vigil for the victims.
Social media responded to the terrorist attack with “Je suis Charlie,” or “I am Charlie.” The show of solidarity with Paris and the satirical newspaper went viral in a multitude of languages.
Late Wednesday, one suspect the attack, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, turned himself in to police, a source close to the case told the AFP news agency. He did so after seeing his name mentioned on social media, the source said.
Heavily armed police fanned out across the country overnight searching for the two other suspects in the attack, who would be later identified as Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, brothers known to French and international intelligence.
Thursday morning
As that search was ongoing, a gunman dressed similarly to those in the Charlie Hebdo attack — all in black and wearing a bulletproof vest — shot a female police officer the Paris suburb of Montrouge. She later died.
Meanwhile, in northern France, a gas station attendant near Villers-Cotterets reported the Kouachi brothers stole food and gas from the business, leading to a massive manhunt there.
Armed officers, some in helmets and carrying shields, searched fields and forests as helicopters with night-vision optics buzzed overhead in hopes authorities were closing in on the brothers.
Thursday afternoon
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls raised the terror alert level in the Picardy region to the highest level as it becomes the focal point in the search.
Friday morning
Police and French special forces troops surrounded a building in Dammartin-en-Goele, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Villers-Cotterets, believing the Kouachi brothers to be inside.
A member of France’s parliament told French channel ITele the two suspects told police they wanted to die as martyrs.
Many area schools were placed on lockdown, shops were told to close and residents were told to stay inside, the mayor’s media office said.
Friday afternoon
A new front in the crisis opened Friday afternoon when a gunman entered a kosher store in the Paris suburb of Porte de Vincennes, taking six people hostage, according to a police union spokesman. He is believed to be the same man accused of shooting the police officer Thursday in Montrouge, the uion spokesman says.
Later Friday afternoon, journalists near the scene of each standoff reported hearing gunfire and explosions in actions that occurred within minutes of each other.
In Dammartin-en-Goele, the move by security forces on the building where the Kouachi brothers were believed hiding ended with both men dead, according to district Mayor Bernard Corneille.
In the supermarket standoff, suspected hostage-taker, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed in the operation and some police officers were injured, Alliance Police Union spokesman Pascal Disand told CNN. At least 10 hostages managed to escape, he said.
Coulibaly’s suspected accomplice — 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene — escaped as hostages ran from the store, Disand said.
Saturday
The alert came amid word that the lone remaining suspect wanted in connection with a terrorism spree — Hayat Boumeddiene — entered Turkey on January 2, a Turkish prime ministry source told CNN.
Boumeddiene was tracked by Turkish authorities to a location near the Turkey-Syria border, according to an official in the Turkish Prime Minister’s office.
Boumeddiene arrived at the Istanbul airport on a flight from Madrid with a man. During routine screening of passengers, the couple were flagged by Turkey’s Risk Assessment Center and a decision made to maintain surveillance on their movements, the official said. The official in the Turkish Prime Minister’s office would not elaborate as to when Boumeddiene was tracked to the border province.
That means Boumeddiene may not have been in France at the time of Thursday’s deadly shooting of a policewoman in Paris, as authorities originally believed. Authorities offered no immediate explanation of the discrepancy, but have said she is wanted in connection with a terrorist attack.
