France: from media massacre to huge anti-terror march

Paris, France - A timeline of the crisis in France following Islamist attacks that killed 17.

More than a million people thronged the streets of Paris Sunday in the biggest rally in French history, led by dozens of world leaders walking arm-in-arm as cries of "Freedom" and "Charlie" rang out across the country.

The interior ministry said 3.7 million people took to the streets nationwide, with Paris alone seeing an "unprecedented" 1.5 million demonstrators.

In the capital, President Francois Hollande linked arms with world leaders, including the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president, in an historic display of unity.

WEDNESDAY, January 7:

- Two men armed with Kalashnikov rifles storm the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for satirical caricatures of Islam and other religions, at around 11:30 am (1030 GMT).

- They kill 12 people including eight cartoonists and journalists as well as a police officer.

- The attackers climb into a black Citroen and exchange fire with police vehicles. They then execute an injured police officer sprawled on the pavement.

- Following a collision they abandon their vehicle, hijack another, and flee Paris.

- France raises its alert status for Paris and northern regions to the highest level.

- Police say they are hunting three men, including two brothers: Cherif and Said Kouachi, 32 and 34 respectively.

The third man suspected of helping the brothers turns himself in and is later released without charge.

THURSDAY, January 8:

- A policewoman is shot and killed by a man just outside Paris. Authorities say the two shooting incidents are connected.

- The Charlie Hebdo suspects rob a petrol station in the northern Aisne region and the owner alerts police.

- Investigators find a dozen Molotov cocktails and two jihadist flags in their getaway car.

- US officials say the Kouachi brothers were on a US no-fly list and that Said had spent months training with Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

FRIDAY, January 9:

- Shots are fired during a car chase on a highway northeast of Paris.

- The Kouachi brothers hijack a car from a woman who recognises them.

- One man is taken hostage at a printing business in Dammartin-en-Goele village near Charles de Gaulle airport. Police lay siege.

- Amedy Coulibaly, suspected of the policewoman's murder on Thursday, takes hostages at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris.

- Police release mugshots of Coulibaly, 32, as well as suspected accomplice and girlfriend, 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene.

- As night falls police commandos launch synchronised raids on the printworks and the kosher supermarket. Explosions and gunfire rock both sites.

- The brothers come out firing at police in Dammartin-en-Goele before being killed. Their hostage emerges unharmed.

- In the Jewish supermarket, four people and the hostage-taker are killed, and four are critically injured. Several captives are freed unharmed.

- In telephone calls earlier in the day Cherif Kouachi tells BFMTV they had been financed by Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

- In a televised speech French President Francois Hollande calls for "vigilance, unity and a mobilisation".

- In a video, a top sharia official from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) threatens France with fresh attacks.

SATURDAY, January 10:

- French forces hunt for Boumeddiene. They eventually say she was likely in Turkey at the time of the attacks, with a Turkish source saying she is possibly already in Syria now.

- More than 700,000 people pour onto the streets across France to pay tribute to the 17 people killed.

- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells French Jews that Israel is their home.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11:

- A German tabloid in the northern port city of Hamburg that reprinted cartoons of Prophet Mohammed from Charlie Hebdo is hit by a firebomb. No one is wounded.

- EU and US security ministers meet in France to work out a joint response to the threat of jihadist attacks.

- A man resembling Coulibaly claims to be a member of the Islamic State group in a posthumous video released online.

- Prosecutors say they have linked Coulibaly to the shooting of a jogger in southern Paris just hours after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

- At least 3.7 million people march across France in the country's biggest rally in history. In Paris, they are led by dozens of world leaders who link arms and hold a minute's silence for the victims.

- Tens of thousands also rally in cities across Europe including Berlin, Brussels and Vienna, and elsewhere, from Jerusalem, Ramallah and Beirut to Montreal.

AFP