Charlie Hebdo

As the first cracks appear in the “national unity” urged by President François Hollande, the spotlight has been turned on the reaction of French Muslims. Ahead of Sunday's 'Republican march' to show solidarity over the Charlie Hebdo killings, the far right and sections of the Right have called on France's Muslims to condemn the massacre publicly. On the Left, opinions are divided on the issue. Mediapart's Hubert Huertas argues that we are faced with two very different visions of France – one that demands assimilation, the other that embraces diversity.

Reports say gunman holding up to 5 hostages in kosher supermarket is linked to Charlie Hebdo killers and is suspect in policewoman murder.

At least one hostage has been taken at a printing business in the town of Dammartin-en-Goële, north east of Paris, according to reports.

With tension building, Muslim leaders advised veiled women to avoid going out alone and urged members to join in national minute of silence.

The hunt is focused on an area of Picardy where the two fugitives were reportedly last seen on Thursday morning when robbing a petrol station.

For the second night running, in towns and cities across France people honored those who paid with their lives for press freedom.

Police hunting two men identified as the suspected gunmen behind Wednesday's massacre centre their search on countryside north-east of Paris.

Hours after the murderous assault by gunmen on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, demonstrations in protest at the outrage were held in Paris and major cities and towns across France. In Paris, police estimated 35,000 people gathered on the Place de la République, close to the publication’s offices, brandishing placards that read ‘I am Charlie’, ‘Not Afraid’ and ‘Fear the Artist’, sending a clear message that they would not be intimidated by terror. Photographer and Mediapart contributor Thomas Haley was at the scene on Wednesday evening where he captured these pictures of a spontaneous and defiant reaction to the massacre that left 12 people dead and another 11 wounded.

The government, the Left and most leaders on the Right have joined calls for “national unity” or a form of national union as the French nation collectively mourned those killed in Wednesday's murderous attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo. Senior figures across the political spectrum will also take part in Sunday's 'Republican march' in Paris as an act of solidarity. But already some politicians on the hard right, and notably those in the far-right Front National (FN), have raised doubts about the national consensus. In particular the FN's president Marine Le Pen has reacted angrily to the fact that so far she has not been invited to the weekend march. As Mathieu Magnaudeix and Marine Turchi report, the far-right has in fact already started to play on the fears of French citizens in the wake of the massacre.

The massacre that took place at the offices of Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning is an act without precedent, writes Mediapart editor François Bonnet. The killers who targeted the satirical magazine also attacked the very heart of what makes a democracy, freedom of the press and, beyond that, our individual and collective freedoms.

The victims, who include two police officers, were killed after hooded gunmen attacked the Paris office of the French satirical magazine.

Interior minister Manuel Valls bans all protests planned this weekend over French magazine cartoons denigrating Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

French embassies around the Islamic close following satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's publication of caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.