PARIS, January 9. /TASS/. French police are negotiating with suspected terrorists, holed up with hostages in a small printing house near the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, 50 kilometers north of Paris, French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet reports.
He said the police identified the hostage-takers as the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo killings, Cherif and Said Kouachi.
A team of French anti-terrorism police is at the site. One of its former officers told BFM Television that as negotiations proceeded, police should be preparing to storm the printing house. Officers have received and thoroughly study the layout of the building.
All residents of the small town have been ordered not to leave their houses. The site is cordoned off by police and only local residents are allowed to drive into the town.
Three heavy helicopters have landed near Dammartin-en-Goele.
On Wednesday morning, masked gunmen targeted an office of the Paris-based satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine, which earlier published caricature images of the Prophet Muhammed.
As a result the shooting, 12 people were killed, including 10 staff members and two policemen. Another 11 people were wounded. This is the deadliest attack in France in half a century.