Fear, turmoil in Paris with 2 hostage-taking attacks

France has been high alert for more attacks since the country's worst terror attack in decades on Wednesday

Terrorists linked to each other seized hostages at two locations around Paris today, facing off against hundreds of French security forces as the city shut down a famed Jewish neighbourhood and scrambled to protect residents and tourists from further attacks.

France has been high alert for more attacks since the country's worst terror attack in decades - the massacre Wednesday in Paris at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

The two sets of hostage-takers apparently know each other, said a police official who was not authorised to discuss the rapidly developing situations with the media.

The Paris mayor's office immediately announced the closure of all shops along Rosiers Street in the city's famed 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 also only a kilometre away from Charlie Hebdo's offices.

Two brothers linked to al-Qaeda grabbed a hostage early today and were cornered by police inside a printing house in Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris. They are believed responsible for the attack that decimated Charlie Hebdo's staff and left two police officers dead.

In addition, the police official said a gunman holding at least five hostages today inside a kosher grocery store in eastern Paris is believed responsible for the roadside killing of a Paris policewoman yesterday. Authorities released a photo of him and a female accomplice but were unclear about her whereabouts.

At the store near the Porte de Vincennes neighbourhood, the gunman burst in with gunfire just a few hours before the Jewish Sabbath began, declaring "You know who I am," the official recounted.

Police SWAT squads descended on the area and France's top security official rushed from to the scene, as he did the day before when the policewoman was killed. The attack came before sundown when the store would have been crowded with shoppers.

Paris police had released a photo of Amedy Coulibaly and a second suspect, a woman named Hayet Boumddiene, who the official said is the market gunman's accomplice. Police said 100 students were under lockdown in schools nearby and the highway ringing Paris was closed.