killings at the headquarters of charlie hebdo. >> a connected incident is unfolding at a kosher grocery store in porte de vincennes. there are reports that five have been taken hostages. that there are conflicting reports about whether hostages have been killed. the suspects have been named. >> sadly at this hour, the death toll now stands at 15, 12 people at charlie hebdo that female police officer who was shot and killed and now if reports are verified, and we don't know at this point if this will hold up, there may have been two hostages were killed. we are going to return to our live international coverage of this event in our sister network, al jazeera english. that english. that it seems that there is a double hostage crisis going on in the country.

a gunman we understand has taken hostages at a kosher soup soup -- super market. at the same time north of paris, the two charlie hebdo killers -- suspected to be behind the killing of 12 people at the charlie hebdo magazine on wednesday have been cornered by police there. they are hiding in an industrial building. and they are holding a hostage. so they are inside a small pinting business and have reportedly said they are prepared to die as martyrs. so that is what is going on over in the east of paris. we understand that a gunman has entered a kosher supermarket.

and these are the live pictures. let's find out what the connection is in fact between these two incidents and cross over to jacky rowland who is joining us from paris. >> reporter: well a couple of hours ago, french police announced that they had established a link as they put it between the two main suspects in the shooting suspects who the police named as sha rear and said kouachi, brothers originally from paris. and they said a link with the man they suspected of carrying out -- first of all a shooting of policemen on thursday and now this hostage taking in the

east of paris. it's only in the last few hours that the police released this information. the police very much controlling the flow of information, controlling exactly what information they release, which channels they release it through, mainly the french media, and what and how. and also the other thing that they have released the police just in the last hour is the names and photographs of two suspects a man and a woman who the police aledge are responsible both for the shooting of the police and the hostage taking at the supermarket which is going on as we speak. in each case hostages are involved. on both occasions the police have denied that there are casualties denied that there are any dead in either of those

hostage taking incidents. but we're talking about parallel incidents, one in the north, and this supermarket hostage taking which is happening in the eastern outskirts of the city itself. >> jacky, let's listen to what the french president has to say earlier on. >> translator: international solidarity has been expressed very strongly. there have been aggression attempts in friendly countries over the past few years, and when it is france our friends also feel concerned. there will be a meeting on sunday, the prime minister is acting in close cooperation with other countries with regards to intelligence and information. and that too is very important. >> reporter: so obviously jacky

an ongoing situation in both areas, but politicians also keeping a very close eye on what is unfolding in the country. >> yes, obviously the front line of these operations involve french special forces and also other french security forces. the interior minister the prime minister and the president have been very keen to show that they are really involved intimately directing those operations so right from the very beginning of this -- crisis i'm talking about more than 48 hours from now, we saw the president going to the seen of the shooting we saw him meeting with his security cabinet in crisis session within two hours of that meeting. we saw him go to the interior ministry a few hours ago to be at the nerve center of the

command and control of the operation taking place at dammartin outside of paris to try to capture the two suspects in the attack. and of course various statements made in front of television cameras by the prime minister and also by the interior minister. so french politicians keen to show they are leading from the front there. >> jacky stand by for a second for me because we're going to cross over to rory challands who is joining us on the telephone. rory what do you know about the situation there. >> reporter: well about an hour and a half ago, maybe 1:30 local time, a second development took place in this unfolding story. a second siege essentially at a kosher supermarket in an area of

paris. we have very very sketchy information. but we know there are two suspects a man and a woman, the french police have released photos of them on twitter and released their names as well. a black man and an arabic-looking woman. and there is some kind of information at the moment. we don't have particularly reliable confirmation on this at the moment that at least one of those two people is connected to the shooting yesterday, in which one police officer died. there have been also reports that there have been fatalities in this siege, in this hostage-taking situation. the interior ministry has denied this. but we do know that there are a number of hostages in that

kosher supermarket. unclear how many at the moment. >> we're looking at the live pictures from that particular area but tell us what you see in terms of police and security presence or a s.w.a.t. team. >> reporter: i haven't seen anything in the air as far as i can tell at the moment but obviously a big police coredone thrown around the area. a lot of sirens and a lot of police standing around. everyone very nervous and everyone very keen to avoid any further casualties. >> was anyone able to get in or out of the area or at least the neighborhood where the situation is unfolding? >> the police are being fairly straight in who they let in and

out. i think some residences are being let through, but nobody else apart from that. and there are fire engines inside the cordoned off area. this is still very much a live situation that hasn't been resolved yet, and the police want to make sure no innocent bystanders get involved in this. >> up until very recently jacky rowland was reporting that police had been very tight lipped about that particular suspect that is behind that hostage-taking situation that is going on where you are. has anymore information emerged rory about him, and what possibly what are his motives? >> not as far as i'm aware at the moment no because this is one of the perils of an

unfolding situation. lots of information comes about that gets jumped on by the media and jumped on by anyone who has an interest in it and some of it [ inaudible ] unfolds, so that is probably why the police are being quite tight lipped about the information they put out. they don't want anything going out that is wrong, that might spread rumors or inflame the situation any further. this is something that paris and france is not particularly used to dealing with in the course -- of course there have been incidents in recent weeks, but this is severity that has shocked the country, the city and many people around the world as well. >> okay. rory we'll leaving you now. rory challands reporting for us from the hostage area. joining here in is the

studio is a professor, and robin i'll cross over to you in just a moment, but first remi over to you, you heard our reporter talking about the situation going on a number of hostages now being taken. why do you think is happening right now? >> it is happening now because the situation in france has been quite interesting to follow. there has been a rise of islamphobic movement and the potential -- the release on wednesday on a very controversial book talking about the potential danger of an islamic month taking over france in 2015. there has been rise of those potential criticism of religious movements, and so i guess this has activated the -- the -- this cell into those actions. especially charlie hebdo was a

newspaper that was a target for a very long time. that issued a caricature of [ inaudible ] just the day before. it showed the caricature of [ inaudible ] giving [ inaudible ] especially for your good health. so you can see the satire that was linked to it. and this has obviously create the necessary background for these terrorist actions to take place. >> okay. thank you. all right. i do apologize, let me now cross over to robin, joining us from london. i wonder if you had a chance to hear what remi was saying and the raise of islamphobic movement in france. do you agree with that? and what do you think of this double hostage situation unfolding. >> the military situation on the

ground is my expertise. you can see the security forces have cordoned off the area and tried to ensure the safety of the public as a priority. they will get as many people out of the area as they can. they will limit the number of people that go in. they will establish communications with the hostage takers and hope to ensure the release of the hostages that are in the buildings -- >> we have seen some of this actually happen in dammartin. so now i suppose you are talking about what should be happening in the second area over the next couple of minutes or hours? >> yeah they'll have the security forces teams in close proximity forming an immediate action plan and that means they are ready to go if people start to die and there is no other option but to send in the troops.

hopefully they can avoid that by negotiation. the longer things drag out, the more time they have to develop a deliberate plan. >> what would that action plan look like exactly in your opinion? >> you would see how many men you have got on the ground. you give them areas of responsibility in the building and if things go wrong, then they assault the building and do the best they can under the circumstances. the more time they have the more information they have, the more time they have got to put together a deliberate plan. and then they can take that information and change their plan accordingly. >> okay. robin standing by for me. let me cross back to remi. you were talking about this rise of islamaphobia movement felt across france remi and we also know that information is emerging that there is some sort

of connection between the suspect behind the hostage-taking situation going on in the east of paris as well as the two suspects behind the killings at charlie hebdo. what does this tell you about -- what do you know of the connection first of all, and what does this tell you about a larger network. >> the [ inaudible ] coordinating the authors new each other, there was some information from secret service that the two brothers [ inaudible ] a well-known figure in islam, this is the movement that tried to release the authors of the 1995 bombing, the bombing on the train station in france. in 2010 they tried to release those authors. there was a trial where the name of one of the brother actually came up. and the description of that terrorist cell was he was

following the technology is that sees any kind of political construction or societal institution as potentially [ inaudible ] to the rise of the muslim religion. so it's a very extreme ideology here. and that's why they are targeting police officers for example, as a rep sentation of the authorities of the societal institutions. >> okay. remi let me remind our viewers quickly of what is going on in france. you are looking at live pictures of a suburb in the east of paris, where we understand there is a hostage situation taking place. in fact there is a double hostage situation going on in france. first a gunman has reportedly opened fire at a kosher supermarket, and he has taken, we understand up to five people

as hostages. that's going on right now in the east of paris. at the same time in the north in a suberb north of paris, in dammartin, there is one hostage, we understand that has been taken by the two suspects who were behind the charlie hebdo killings on wednesday. so the two suspects have now ended up in an industrial building in dammartin, in fact it is a small printing business where they have ended up. and the situation has been going on for the past couple of hours. there have been police as well as security forces who are surrounding the town of dammartin, as well as inside dammartin. just about an hour or so there ago there was an evacuation of students who were in local schools there in dammartin. so those are the latest pictures

you are looking at of some of the school children that had been evacuated from dammartin. while that situation continues to unfold with the two suspects who are in that small printing business in dammartin, they have been holed up there for the past couple of hours, along with a hostage. crossing over to the special service officer for the british army. robin, with the evacuation of the school children what does that tell you about the negotiations that are taking place with the two suspects the -- the brothers behind the charlie hebdo killings? >> it indicates that they have managed to control and contain the hostage takers in a small space. and doing a marvellous job under difficult circumstances, evacuating the school evacuating the area ensuring

the safety of the community first. and it seems they have established communications. and that's a good sign because then you can get an indication of their attitude their manner their emotional state, and start to make plans according to how they are reacting. if it looks as though they are high i will excited then you want to calm them down. so the opening of come communications is a good thing. >> could you describe from what you have seen the psychological state of the two suspects at this point? >> well at the moment we know these people from the information gathered by the media in the last few days these are the people who have likely already carried out killings. they have already killed somebody if they kill another

person it is not going to change their execution. it seems they either want to be executed by police to be martyrs for their cause, or they want to stay alive. if we can persuade them to stay alive, that's the best thing for the hostages. >> remi the two suspects did say that they are prepared to die. >> they do -- i mean they will be more than likely to come to extreme outcome here. they are heavily armed when they came back, i believe they were going back to the airport, but you also saw that there. they actually are targeting specific institutions. they did not kill for example, the car drivers when they hijacked those cars but they are definitely ready to go towards extreme measure and will not fear dying as a martyr. it is very important for the french government to be able to

prevent this outcome. they are able to pull those suspected authors of the charlie hebdo events and put them to trial through a normal judicial system first of all that will allow to show the rule of law in frens and prevent those two brothers to be considered as martyrs for a specific cause, so the outcome here actually are very important for the long term. >> from what we know so far is that these two men do not seem to belong to any organization. no organization has come out and claimed any responsibility for the attack on charlie hebdo. but one of the brothers fought with -- or trained with rather al-qaeda in yemen a couple of years ago. >> and a french newspaper was quoting one of the owners of the car just after the hijacking, saying they told me if the police talks to you, tell them it is on behalf of al-qaeda in yemen.

so that's the only information we have. we do not have however, an official statement from any terrorist group backing those events. we only have the worlds of the people on the scene. >> robin what needs to be done in the next couple of hours -- what needs to be done in the east of paris to contain the situation? >> yeah i think they have already contained the situation, they managed to hold the people in a confined and secure area. in that means they are unlikely to move somewhere else unless another incident occurs and the same to the north of paris as well. they have contained the situation, created a core done and they want to establish a plan. so they want people to start to talk to them.

but as i said before at the same time they want to be ready to go in a moment's notice. >> do you expect it to go wrong? >> i think there's a high chance that other people will die, an assault will actually have to take place at some point in time. there are different options, you can assault the building you can take people out with snipers, and there are lots of different ways of taking accessive action against these hostage takers. however, the authorities will want to take them alive, they will want to have prisoners, and their priority will be to get the hostages released safely. >> okay. thank you very much robin. we'll cross over to jacky rowland in paris to get any

update first of all on the unfolding hostage situation. >> that situation is continueing. we're seeing similar scenes as we saw around the area of the charlie hebdo offices 48 hours earlier. we have extensive security forces and other emergency service vehicles fire engines, ambulances brought into the immediate vicinity of the supermarket, where we understand the suspect is holding as many as five people hostage. the other thing that is going on right now is that in the last 10 minutes or so another crisis meeting has begun. chaired by the french president francois hollande and also

bringing together the prime minister and the ministers of the interior justice minister as well. clearly the situation is becoming increasingly complicated because the he is trying

to convince the public that they are in control, and they are doing all they can to ensure the security

of the french public. >> all right. jacky thank you. let's find out exactly what is happening on the ground. bring in rory challands joining us from the area to tell us what is going on what you are seeing from your vantage point. >> reporter: well police coredon has been put up around the area blocking off the roads. around that core don we now have a crowd [ inaudible ] there. trying to find out what is going on inside. inside you can see a line of -- i would say 30 or 40 [ inaudible ], a number of armed officers standing around making sure that that area inside is

completely limits to anyone that they don't think should be getting in or coming out. as jacky was saying police continue to show that they have a degree of control of the situation and -- and make sure that people feel as reassured as possible. >> what do we know about the suspect, rory that is behind this hostage taking situation unfolding in the east? >> well the police have released photos of -- of the two people who they think are involved. it's a man and a woman. they have also released their names as well. now some of the information that has been coming out suggests that at least one of these people was suspected or was

involved -- suspected of being involved in a shooting yesterday of two police officers who were shot, one of whom subsequently died of their injuries. which it is believed -- [ inaudible ] confirm this at the moment that one of the suspects here was involved in that as well. so this is a fluid situation. a lot of information has been coming out. the interior ministry has been keen to quash the rumors of fatalities in this second scene. [ inaudible ] so far. so, yeah information coming out and it is taking a while to [ inaudible ]. >> all right. rory thank you for the time being. just coming out to 1430 gmt here at al jazeera. what you are looking at are live

pictures from dammartin where a hostage crisis is unfolding in the eastern suberb of paris where we understand the gunmen seized up to five hostages at a kosher supermarket, and that is the scene where police have cordoned off the area. at the same time crossing over to the suberb in the northeast of paris where the two suspects behind the charlie hebdo killings on wednesday are also holding a hostage there, and they are holed up in anbuilding. police and security vehicles in the two areas. ls has two