Unity rally for Paris shootings: live, Paris supermarket siege witness: ’It was like the end of the world’
Trapped in his flat inside the police cordon, witness Ian Ayres watched the deadly end to the Paris supermarket siege, he tells Alastair Good.
The Senegalese-born Frenchman justifies his actions in footage filmed some time before this week's atrocity.
Coulibaly was shot dead by police on Friday after holding a dozen people hostage in a Kosher supermarket.
During the hostage siege, he killed four people named by the French Board of Jewish Deputies as Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen and Francois-Michel Saada.
French police have launched in an intensive search for Coulibaly's wife Hayat Boumeddiene, describing her as "armed and dangerous".
The 17 victims from the Paris terror attacks: (Top row) Charb, Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut (aka Cabu), Bernard Maris and Tignous (middle row) Elsa Cayat, Frederic Boisseau, Ahmed Merabet, Franck Brinsolaro, Philippe Honore aka Honore and Mustapha Ourrad (bottom row) Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Francois Saada, Michel Renaud and Clarissa Jean-Philippe.
The father of four worked was a computer engineer who had worked as an insurance agent close to the supermarket.
Philippe Braham was a father of four, with one child was from his first marriage and three from his second marriage to Valerie, his brother-in-law, Shai Ben David told the Israeli news site, Ynet.
The couple had suffered another family tragedy three years ago with the death of their first son.
"This was an incomprehensible tragedy for my sister. She survived only thanks to his strength," Mr Ben-David said.
Mr Braham was described as an observant Jew who attended the synagogue in Montrouge, a Parisian suburb. His brother is the rabbi of the synagogue in Pantin, another suburb of Paris.
Mr Braham had dreamed of moving to Israel. "He loved Israel. He buried his parents and son here. He was an observant man who never harmed anyone. He visited Israel many times, the last time was several months ago to bury his mother," Mr Ben-David said.
Refael Braham, Philippe's 14-year-old son from his first marriage, was in Israel when he learned of his father's death.
"He was very close to his father and took it really hard," the head of the French aliyah project in the Netanya municipality told Ynet. "He has been crying and refusing to believe he lost his father."
Refael said: "Dad went to the supermarket to shop for Shabbat. When I was with him (in France), we'd go shopping together quite often. If I hadn't made aliyah to Israel, I might have gone with him this time as well and gotten hurt."
09.18 BBC reports that as a tribute to those killed in the attacks, London landmarks such as Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery with be lit in blue, white and red - the colours of the French flag.
09.14 French police launched in an intensive search for Hayat Boumeddiene, the 26-year-old partner of one of the attackers, describing her as "armed and dangerous".
She is the wife of Amedy Coulibaly, responsible for the attack on the Kosher supermarket. During the hostage siege, he killed four people named by the French Board of Jewish Deputies as Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen and Francois-Michel Saada.
A source familiar with the situation said Boumeddiene left France last week and travelled to Syria via Turkey. A senior Turkish official corroborated that account, saying she passed through Istanbul on Jan. 2.
A senior Turkish security official said Paris and Ankara were now cooperating in trying to trace her but that she had arrived in Istanbul without any warning from France.
"We think she is in Syria at the moment but we do not have any evidence about that. She is most probably not in Turkey," the Turkish source said
09.02 When François Hollande joins the mass "unity march" today in Paris, it will be only the second time since World War II that a French head of state has joined a street protest, reports Rory Mulholland.
The last time was when president François Mitterrand, a Socialist like Mr Hollande, discreetly slipped into the crowd at a rally in May 1990.
That demo was against racism and anti-Semitism.
08.58 In an unprecedented show of unity, the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority will both attend the rally to honour the victims of three days of bloodshed, AFP reports.
Along with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, the king and queen of Jordan will be present at the rally.
08.57 The US secretary of state, John Kerry, vowed that no act of terror would halt "the march of freedom" as he expressed solidarity with the people of France after last week's Islamist attacks, AFP reports. Mr Kerry is currently in India.
"We stand together this morning with the people of France. We stand together not just in anger and outrage but in solidarity and commitment in confronting extremists.
"No act of terror will ever stop the march of freedom."
08.46 Israeli and French media report the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman and economy minister Naftali Bennett will attend today's rally.
08.37 Reuters reports on an arson attack on the German newspaper, Hamburger Morgenpost. The paper, like many others in the country, printed the cartoons from Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine which was subject to a deadly attack in which 12 people were killed.
A police spokesman said that an incendiary device was thrown at the newspaper building in the night and documents were burned inside. Two suspects were arrested near the crime scene because they behaved in an unusual manner, she added.
The newspaper said on its web page that there were no people inside the building when the attack happened. Whether the arson attack was connected to the Charlie Hebdo cartoons was still under investigation, the paper added.
08.34 The march doesn't begin in Place de la Republique until 3pm, but already people are milling around in the grand square at the heart of Paris, reports Harriet Alexander.
