LIVE BLOG: Paris Charlie Hebdo chase

The gunman who took two women hostage in a jewellery store in the southern French city of Montpellier on Friday has given himself up, according to reports. An official said the incident had no link to the Islamist violence around Paris.

After around seven hours of negotiations, the man surrendered to police, sources told Agence France-Presse.

"This man entered the jewellery store but there was no attempted robbery and his motive is not known," prosecutor Christophe Barret told reporters.

He had earlier told AFP that the incident was an armed robbery, insisting "it has nothing to do with what is happening in Paris".

The incident saw anti-terrorist police block off a large section of the centre of the Mediterranean city before the man gave himself up in the early hours of Saturday.

The two hostages were unharmed.

A top sharia official from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has threatened France with fresh attacks following those at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and at a Jewish supermarket, SITE monitoring group said Friday.

"It is better for you to stop your aggression against the Muslims, so perhaps you will live safely. If you refuse but to wage war, then wait for the glad tiding," Harith al-Nadhari was quoted saying in a video.

He stopped short of claiming responsibility for the three days of bloodshed in France that left 17 people dead.

But one of the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack reportedly studied in Yemen, where he attended Al-Qaeda training camps, Yemeni security sources and a classmate have said.

"Some of the sons of France were disrespectful to the prophets of Allah, so a group from among the believing soldiers of Allah marched unto them, then they taught them respect and the limit of the freedom of expression," the AQAP official said.

Twitter users have posted the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag, a sign of solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, more than five million times, Twitter France said on Friday.

The symbolic five-million mark, an unprecedented number in the history of France-related hashtags, was reached after French security forces killed the brothers suspected of the massacre and an ally responsible for a separate, but related, attack.

The hashtag had been tweeted 5,044,740 times by 2200 GMT Friday, with a peak of 6,300 tweets per minute.

The most tweeted hashtag of 2014 - #Ferguson, the US city where a white police officer killed unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown - was shared more than 18,136,000 times.

US President Barack Obama rallied to the support of France on Friday after the bloody end to hostage sieges in Paris, vowing to offer all assistance to the country.

"I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow," Obama said at a speaking engagement in Tennessee, describing France as America's "oldest ally".

"The moment that the outrageous attack took place, we directed all of our law enforcement and counterintelligence operations to provide whatever support that our ally needs in confronting this challenge," Obama said.

"We're hopeful the immediate threat is now resolved. The French government continues to face the threat of terrorism and has to remain vigilant. The situation is fluid," he added.

Meanwhile, the US warned Americans to beware of "terrorist actions and violence" all over the world, following the Paris attacks.

"Recent terrorist attacks, whether by those affiliated with terrorist entities, copycats, or individual perpetrators, serve as a reminder that US citizens need to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness," the State Department said on Friday. 

The advisory is an update to its "Worldwide Caution" from 10 October 2014.

The gunman who was shot dead by Paris police after taking hostages at a Jewish supermarket Friday phoned other people from the scene, urging them to stage further attacks, a security source said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Amedy Coulibaly, 32, was killed in the climax of the siege, in which four hostages died.

His 26-year-old wife Hayat Boumeddiene is still being sought by police.

The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, said on Friday night that this week's attacks had exposed cracks in the country's intelligence infrastructure.

"There is a clear failing. When 17 people die, it means there were cracks".

There were unconfirmed reports earlier in the day that an accomplice of the supermarket hostage-taker, thought to be his girlfriend, had escaped through the back of the store, despite a heavy police presence.

A vigil was held in Moroccan capital Rabat on Friday night in the aftermath of Friday's violence in France.

A man held up a sign in French and Berber, an indigenous language of Morocco, bearing the message "Je Suis Charlie".

People in Cairo, Egypt also held a candlelit vigil.

In a statement, the French government has pledged to support all those affected by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo's offices, as well as subsequent attacks in the past two days.

According to the release, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has ordered that "all necessary means" be made available to the families of victims, saying that they will be guided through all the necessary steps.

The French government is also urging citizens to take part in a unity rally planned for Sunday.

Translation: Republican march on Sunday, everyone united! #JeSuisCharlie #FranceIsCharlie

In a statement, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that the events of the past few days constitute a declaration of war.

"War has been declared on France," said the former leader, who stepped down after losing elections in 2012, "on her institutions, on the Republic, by savages who negate the very existence of civilization and the universal values of humanism.

"This tragic situation has called upon each of us to respect national unity, which we owe to the victims.

"France must show herself strong and firm, to guarantee the safety of our compatriots, the respect for our way of life and our capacity to ensure to every person the liberty to say what thinks".

 Paris's Arc de Triomphe, the huge monument that honours French soldiers who died in the French Revolutionary and Napeoleonic Wars, tonight has the message "Paris est Charlie" projected on it.

The message is a reference to the message "Je Suis Charlie," which was frequently used to show messages of solidarity after the massacre in and around the offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the 87-year old French cartoonist Albert Uderzo came out of retirement to pen a new cartoon carrying the message.

Uderzo is the creator of France's much-loved Asterix cartoons.

French President Francoise Hollande gave a televised address a few moments ago, in which he called on the French public to maintain their 'unity, vigilance and mobilisation".

Confirming reports that four people were killed in the supermarket siege, the Premier warned that France has not yet faced down all the threats that it must counter.

"I call for unity...it is our best weapon. We must show our determination to fight anything and everything that divides us".

Hollande condemned anti-Semitism, calling today's siege at a kosher supermarket in Paris "a terrible act".

He also stressed that "the people who committed these attacks, these fanatics, have nothing to do with the Islamic faith".

After thanking French soldiers, he confirmed that the leaders of several European countries have pledged to attend Sunday's unity march in Paris.

"We have an ideal that is greater than us. I call upon all French men and women to rise on Sunday together…in the name of pluralism, democracy and liberalism, to which we are all attached and which Europe represents. Long live the Republic, long live France".

Amedy Coulibaly, the hostage taker at a kosher supermarket in Paris, told a French television station that he was a member of Islamic State, AFP reports.

Coulibaly telephoned BMFTV and carried out a telephone interview with them while the hostage situation was ongoing.

During the interview, which is yet to be broadcast, Coulibaly reportedly said that he had co-ordinated his attack with Cherif and Said Kouachi, suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

He told them he was a member of Islamic State, a group primarily active in Iraq and Syria but that also encourages followers to launch attacks at home.

However, Cherif Kouachi told BMFTV by telephone that his attack was financed by al-Qaeda in Yemen, a group that is opposed to Islamic State.

Yemeni officials have said that Said Kouachi, Cherif's brother, entered Yemen illegally and was trained there before slipping out of the country in 2012.

Police have confirmed that two hostages are being held at a jewellery shop in Montpellier, a small town in southern France near the border with Spain.

So far it is not thought that the incident is related to today's twin hostage sieges further north - most reports so far suggest that the jewellery shop siege is a robbery gone wrong, but we will keep you updated.

The leaders of Spain and the UK have said they will join French President Francois Hollande on Sunday for a unity march in support of Charlie Hebdo.

Spain Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has also said he will join the demonstration, which will take place on Sunday in central Paris.

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".

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).