Paris on edge as new shootout adds to Charlie Hebdo attack angst

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Paris was on edge as a shooting south of the city on Thursday claimed the life of a policewoman and the hunt intensified for two of the perpetrators of Wednesday's massacre at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

As hundreds of police and soldiers patrolled airports, schools and cultural sites like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, a suspect package at the Gare du Nord resulted in the evacuation of the station, and streets around the Presidential Elysee Palace were blocked by security officers in body armour.

Rumours of armed men, shootouts, explosions and bomb threats made their rounds on social media and over the airwaves, and police guarded the main gateways to the capital, creating an atmosphere of a city under siege. One of the deadliest attacks since World War II at the heart of Europe is bringing with it an environment of fear to France and the region.

"We are confronting an exceptional risk that can lead at any moment to other instances of violence," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Europe 1 radio.

Cazeneuve said on Thursday that seven people were being questioned in connection with the attacks on Wednesday, with the two suspected perpetrators - brothers Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, - on the run. They are armed and dangerous, police said.

The youngest suspect in the attack turned himself in, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor said. However, the 18-year-old might have been confused with another person. Classmates tweeted on Wednesday that he was at his high school in Charleville-Mezieres, 230 km (135 miles) from Paris, and had nothing to do with radical Islam.

At least 12 people died at the weekly Charlie Hebdo office in eastern Paris and 11 were injured. No link has been established between those killings and Thursday's shootout just outside the capital, police said.

The tragedy spurred outrage from leaders around the world, including the heads of Muslim nations and organisations. Police had seen no indication that the two suspected assailants were planning an imminent assault, according to Cazeneuve. Cherif Kouachi had served time in prison for participating in a jihadist recruitment cell.

Earlier, AFP reported that anti-terror forces raided a site in the northeastern city of Reims - about 90 miles from Paris. The police didn't comment when contacted by Bloomberg.