Four hostages were killed as police ended a siege in a Parisian kosher supermarket today.
One of the terrorists responsible, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed by police.
Two police officers were injured in the raid.
Shortly before police entered, six explosions were heard emanating from the supermarket.
The blasts, each reportedly lasting several seconds in length, came after the situation was mired in stalemate for hours and seem to mark the end of the crisis.
Contrary to earlier reports, the French Interior Ministry has said that no one has been killed in the siege of a store in eastern Paris.
Earlier, media sources had been reported that two people had been killed.
At least one person has been injured.
Some French media reports suggest that the hostages may have already been dead before the police stormed the building.
Reports suggest that the store is the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Vincennes, a Jewish area.
Women and children were among the six people to be taken hostage by the gunman.
Some of the hostages have been named as: Shmuel Yitzchok Ben Sara, Zerya Bas Susan, Andra Bas Jusian and Mordechai Ben Maya. A six-month-old baby was in the store.
Employees and customers were reportedly trapped in the basement.
One hostage, a 20-year-old Jewish student, called her uncle from the basement. Jean-Marc Sellam, her uncle's busniess partner, told the Daily Mail: She was shopping at the time. She was allowed to speak to her uncle on the phone. She was scared and panicked."
The shooter, reportedly armed with two guns, is believed to be the same man who killed trainee policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Paris yesterday.
The gunman reportedly told police at the scene: "You know who I am".
There is speculation that the gunmen involved in the woodland siege north of Paris were communicating with the hostage taker in Vincennes by mobile phone. The gunmen, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, were being chased in relation to the attack on Charlie Hebdo, and have now been killed by police.
Gunman Amedy Coulibaly is believed to have demanded that authorities stop hunting the Kouachi brothers.
Schools, supermarkets, synagogues and kosher restaurants in the area are in lockdown. The area is swamped by police and emergency services.
French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said: "The priority is to resolve this crisis in the most serene way possible, which means without violence.
"We are trying to talk, to establish contact. The priority is to establish a dialogue."
Communal groups responded to the attack.
Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said: “We must increase security at all possible targets but we should not allow these murderers to terrorise European citizens into submission, so we must also go on the offensive and close down the possibility of further attacks.
“There should be constructive outrage by our political leaders that will end the import of a bloody and malevolent ideological wave of terror onto our continent. Terrorists have declared war on our way of life and we can no longer stand idly by. Words are no longer enough.
"I have confidence in President François Hollande and the French authorities to take the necessary actions in the defence of our society and our way of life and we call on all European leaders to convene urgently to implement emergency measures in the wake of current and immediate threats. This is not a Jewish issue, neither is it a French issue it affects every citizen on the continent of Europe today. This is a war and we must win it."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman confirmed via Twitter: "“PM Netanyahu spoke with the foreign minister and head of the Mossad, instructed to render every possible assistance to the French authorities.”
A spokesman for the Community Security Trust tweeted: "We are in contact with SPCJ & UK Police regarding hostage taking at kosher supermarket in Paris & monitoring situation closely."
SPCJ, Le Service de Protection de la Communauté Juive, is the antisemitism monitoring group in France.
A spokesman for the CRIF, the French-Jewish representative body, has issued a security alert, warning people to "not take any risks".
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis tweeted: "Let's say Shabbat Shalom with all our hearts - may this Shabbat see a peaceful end to the dramas unfolding in Paris."
Vincennes has been home to the Jewish community since the 1920s. It's a residential middle-class area, where Jews and Muslims live together - with halal and kosher stores side-by-side.
