Key events in the Charlie Hebdo attacks

KEY EVENTS IN THE CHARLIE HEBDO ATTACKS

Wednesday, January 7:

- Two men armed with Kalashnikov rifles storm the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo

- Crying "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) they kill 12 people including eight cartoonists and journalists as well as two police officers

- A shootout with police and a car chase ensues, during which the perpetrators leave Paris and shake off their pursuers

- Police say they are hunting two brothers: Cherif and Said Kouachi, 32 and 34 respectively, who are known to French intelligence

- The protest slogan "Je Suis Charlie" is picked up and demonstrations are held in France and around the world

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

Friday, January 9:

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

- One man is taken hostage by the Kouachi brothers at a printing business in Dammartin-en-Goele village; police lay siege

- Amedy Coulibaly, 32, suspected of the policewoman's murder on Thursday, takes hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris

- Police release mugshots of Coulibaly 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

- 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 unharmed

Sunday, January 11:

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