Fresh shooting broke out in eastern Paris on Friday, with reports that an armed man had taken hostages at a kosher grocery store, a source told AFP.
Police sources said at least two were killed at the scene.
The gunman was suspected of being the same man who killed a policewoman south of Paris on Thursday, who is thought to have links to the assailants who stormed satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.
France Info radio reported that the shooter had two AK-47 rifles, and fired for around 20 seconds before taking five hostages. He then phoned police to make contact.
The suspect matches the physical description of the shooter who killed the policewoman Thursday in Montrouge.
Police, firefighters, and emergency personnel are at the scene.
Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman said he is not aware of any Israeli citizens among the hostages.
According to the address given by French radio, the store is called Hypercacher Alimentation Générale.
Ruben K., a Parisian Jew who knows the store well, told the Times of Israel that the market is most crowded on Friday, and is frequented by residents of Vincennes and St. Mande.
Four nearby schools are in lockdown.
Earlier Friday, French police identified a suspect in the shooting Thursday in Montrouge, south of Paris, and have taken two people in his immediate circle into custody, a source close to the investigation said.
“The suspect has been identified. Two people very close to him have been taken into custody,” the source said. The shooting, which left another person injured, has not been linked to Wednesday’s Islamist attack in the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead.
The shooting was being handled by anti-terrorist judges, the prosecutor’s office announced Thursday.
The decision was made “in view of the current context” following the killing of 12 people by Islamist gunmen in an attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo a day earlier, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, emphasizing that no link has yet been made.
The policewoman was shot by a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest just outside Paris, and was a city employee who is in serious condition, police said Thursday.
The man escaped after the attack.
By Lazer Berman
