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Suspected hostage-taking as French track shooting suspects

A police helicopter circles over Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast Paris, as part of an operation to seize two heavily armed suspects, Friday, Jan. 9, 2015. French security forces swarmed a small industrial town northeast of Paris Friday in an operation to capture a pair of heavily armed suspects in the deadly storming of a satirical newspaper. Shots were fired as the brothers stole a car in the early morning hours, said a French security official, who could not immediately confirm reports of hostages taken or deaths later in the day in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

PARIS (AP) — A French police official says a pair of brothers suspected in the storming of a satirical newspaper appear to have taken a hostage.

A police helicopter circles over Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast Paris, as part of an operation to seize two heavily armed suspects, Friday, Jan. 9, 2015. French security forces swarmed a small industrial town northeast of Paris Friday in an operation to capture a pair of heavily armed suspects in the deadly storming of a satirical newspaper. Shots were fired as the brothers stole a car in the early morning hours, said a French security official, who could not immediately confirm reports of hostages taken or deaths later in the day in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Xavier Castaing, chief spokesman for Paris regional police, spoke as a massive operation unfolded Friday in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, near Charles de Gaulle airport.

Helicopters and hundreds of security forces backed by ambulances streamed to the town, where the brothers were believed to be holed up.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed the operation to seize the armed pair, who are suspected in the bloody storming of Charlie Hebdo newspaper.

Twelve people died in the central Paris attack on Wednesday.

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