Six people held hostage by a gunman in a kosher supermarket in Paris and their families are suing a channel over its live coverage of the incident in which four people were shot dead, reports The Independent.
Victims and their loved ones are claiming that the all-news BFM television channel endangered their lives during the attack by murderer Amedy Coulibaly before he died in a shower of bullets.
The shoot-out occurred two days after a massacre at the offices of satirical magaine Charlie Hebdo in the French capital on 7 January by brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi – who are said to be affiliated with al-Qaeda in Yemen.
BFMTV and other broadcasters notably revealed in live reports that shoppers were hiding in the Hyper Cacher kosher store. The watchdog and the families’ lawyers say that could have endangered the hostages if Coulibaly had found out that his siege was being broadcast as it had happened.
Several of around 15 hostages were hidden in a walk-in refrigerator by worker Lassana Bathily, a 24-year-old Muslim from Mali who has been granted French citizenship, after nine years living in France, for his bravery.