French Interior Minister headed to site of supermarket siege

The French Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, is headed to the site of today's siege at a kosher supermarket in Porte De Vincennes, a suburb of eastern Paris.

Cazeneuve said he is saddened by the loss of lives - it is though that at least four hostages were killed, along with the gunman Amedy Coulibaly.

The Interior Minister thanked French police forces "from the bottom of [his] heart".

Local residents of the suburb have told the BBC that the area was on lockdown for much of the day.

At the scene of the hostage siege, locals told a Washington Post correspondent that the area, like the whole of Paris, is a "melting pot".

At #Paris hostage scene, Muslims and Jews wait for news together. One says: N'hood "is a melting pot - like Paris." pic.twitter.com/FHJa0LKgPL
— Griff Witte (@griffwitte) January 9, 2015

Another resident, Raquel Garrido, told AFP it was a "brotherly neighbourhood".

There are "plenty of nationalities, plenty of religions, adding that usually "it works out really well".

"We can see that there are some crazy [people] who dream of killing each other, and we're stuck in the middle, neighbours, residents, ordinary citizens. We talk love, we talk fraternity, we say 'stop'. And I'm sure we'll win in the end".

As the Interior Minister heads to the scene of the supermarket siege, French President Francois Holland is preparing to address the nation via a televised statement some time before 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT).