Timeline of the Charlie Hebdo attack and manhunt
Key developments since Wednesday’s terror attack in which 12 were killed, France’s deadliest attack in half a century
PARIS, France — A snapshot of developments since Wednesday’s attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people died and 11 were injured, in the deadliest attack in France in half a century.
WEDNESDAY, January 7
– Two men armed with Kalashnikov rifles storm the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly at around 11:30 a.m. (10:30 GMT).
– They kill a cleaning man initially identified as a receptionist before shooting eight journalists, a police officer protecting cartoonist Charb, and a visitor.
– The attackers climb into a black Citroen and exchange fire with police vehicles, and then coldly execute an injured police officer sprawled on the sidewalk.
– Following a collision, they abandon their vehicle, hijack another, and flee northwards from Paris, where police lose their trail.
– France raises its alert status for Paris and northern regions to the highest level of “Attack alert.”
– Anti-terrorist police raid sites in the northeastern towns of Reims and Charleville-Mezieres, acting on forensic evidence and an identity document found in the abandoned car.
– Police say they are hunting three men, including two brothers: Cherif and Said Kouachi, 34 and 32 respectively.
– A third man suspected of helping the brothers then turns himself in.
THURSDAY, January 8
– A policewoman is shot by a man just outside Paris and dies. Authorities later determine there is no link with the Charlie Hebdo attack.
– The Charlie Hebdo suspects rob a gas station in the northern Aisne region; the owner then calls police.
– Investigators find a dozen Molotov cocktails and two jihadist flags in the getaway car used in the massacre.
– Thousands of security personnel are deployed, many sent to comb the area where the two men were last seen.
– A US official says the Kouachi brothers have been “on our watch list for years” and that Said had spent a few months training with al-Qaeda in Yemen.
FRIDAY, January 9
– Shots are fired during a car chase on the National 2 highway north of Paris with two suspects who might be the Kouachi brothers, a police source says.
– The men hijack a car from a woman who said she recognized them as Cherif and Said Kouachi, a police source says.
– One person is taken hostage at a printing business near Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris, which is surrounded by police.
