More than 700,000 rally in France after Islamist attacks

More than 700,000 people took to the streets across France today in tribute to the 17 people killed in three days of violence by Islamist extremists, the French interior minister says.

From Nice and Marseilles in the south to Besancon in the east and Lille in the north, people poured onto the streets to express their solidarity following Wednesday’s attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead. The massacre was followed by the fatal shooting of a police officer on Thursday and the murder of four Jewish hostages during a siege at a kosher supermarket yesterday.

“700,000 people have marched” in cities around France, Bernard Cazeneuve tells reporters on the eve of a huge Paris rally planned for tomorrow due to be attended by a string of world leaders.

— AFP