Freed, shoppers who hid for five hours in freezer
CROUCHED in a freezing cold storage room, terrified shoppers huddled together ‘like frightened animals’ for five hours as the Jewish deli siege played out above them.
The customers cowered in temperatures of -3C, praying that the gunman wouldn’t check the basement room.
Upstairs, Amedy Coulibaly, 32 – who had shot dead an unarmed Paris policewoman only 24 hours earlier – was holding up to 15 people hostage at gunpoint and threatening to murder them if police didn’t free the Kouachi brothers.
When police began massing outside the building in the quiet Paris suburb of Porte de Vincennes, he screamed: ‘ You know who I am!’ and demanded they free the brothers.
The gunman, working with his girl-friend Hayat Boumeddiene, had shot dead unarmed trainee policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe outside a Metro station on Thursday.
Boumeddiene, 27, was last night on the run and police described her as ‘armed and dangerous’. It was unclear whether she was present at the deli raid at any point.
Other reports suggested there was a second gunman at the scene and spoke of a ‘mystery body’ which had not been identified.
One of those hiding in the basement room two floors below the shop was 36-year-old father-of-four Johan Dorre.
His uncle Jacob Katorza told the Daily Mail: ‘ Johan and the others were terrified that they would be discovered by the terrorists and were forced to huddle together like fr i ghtened animals t o avoid hypothermia.
‘He was shopping for kosher cakes and meat delicacies when he heard shots being fired above on the ground floor and immediately took cover with other shoppers in the basement. We know these people are monsters and would not hesitate to kill Jewish people. They targeted the supermarket because it was run by Jews.’
Mr Dorre was one of the lucky ones who managed to seek refuge from Coulibaly, who opened fire as he stormed into the Hyper Cacher store at lunchtime yesterday.
The former Coca- Cola factory worker held the hostages threatening to murder them if his co-conspirators the Kouachi brothers were targeted by police.
The gunman, who once met former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, was wearing body armour and brandishing two Kalashnikov automatic weapons when he stormed the shop.
I n dramatic s cenes, police launched what is believed to have been a co-ordinated raid on both the deli and the printworks and Coulibaly was killed.
A phone that had not been replaced on its socket had allowed security services to listen in on him, according to reports. When he started praying, they moved in to end the siege.
Four hostages are also believed to have died during the siege.
Coulibaly was born in 1982 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, a suburb south of Paris, into a family of ten. He fell into petty crime at a young age and had a criminal record for offences including theft, drugs offences and armed robbery of a bank. Police believe he became radicalised in 2002. In 2009, he met then French president Mr Sarkozy as part of his outreach programme to support companies employing young people. A year later, in 2010, Coulibaly was arrested by French anti-terrorist forces.
Boumeddiene is believed to have been in a relationship with Coulibaly for more than four years and is said to have lived in his apartment while he was serving his prison term. She said they had previously
practised firing crossbows in the countryside.
The shocking finale of yesterday’s siege brought to an end incredible scenes as thousands of armed police and security forces massed outside the Jewish deli.
More than 100 pupils were under lockdown in schools nearby – children sang the French national anthem La Marseillaise as they waited in terror – and the highway ringing Paris was closed.
At around 5pm explosions were heard and one lit up the inside of the building. Two policemen were then seen falling to the ground with leg wounds during the fighting.
Hostages, including women and children, were then seen running out of the building looking stricken and traumatised and with their arms draped around each other.
In one poignant image, a man was seen clasping a child to his chest as he left the building. Two women were pictured running out screaming. Special forces were also seen carrying a woman. The RAID commandos had hacked into the CCTV of the deli, and also communicated with one of the hostages by mobile phone.
The hostages had been taken just hours before the Jewish Sabbath and were believed to have been deliberately targeted after city officials ordered the closure of Jewish shops in Paris.
The Paris mayor’s office immediately announced the closure of all shops along Rosiers Street in the Marais neighbourhood in the heart of the tourist district. Hours before the Jewish Sabbath, the street is usually crowded with shoppers – French Jews and tourists alike. The street is a short distance from the Charlie Hebdo offices.
Links between the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices and the murder of the policewoman had initially been played down by officials.
But by yesterday morning it was clear that the killings were carried out by associates who were working together. Miss Jean-Philippe, who had been in the job for only 15 days, was the third police officer to have been killed in France’s worst terrorist atrocity in decades.
The 27-year-old, from the Caribbean island of Martinique, was investigating a car crash when Coulibaly opened fire in the street, screaming ‘Take that!’ as he killed her.
He also shot a street cleaner in the face, leaving him in a serious condition in hospital. Additional reporting: Emily Davies and Emily Kent Smith