Over two million people gathered on the streets of Paris yesterday in a display of solidarity with the victims of three days of Islamist terror.
World leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, joined French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee earlier today before marching arm in arm in front of the crowd.
It follows the killings of 12 people in an attack on the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday and of four hostages at an armed siege at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris on Friday.
After a delay of over an hour the immense crowd began marching from Place de le Republique to Place de la Nation. Over 2000 police and military are on duty.
Following the march the foreign heads of state left the rally but President Hollande stayed to meet those who escaped the attacks and the families of the victims, who are at the front of the march.
Rabbis, priests and imams are among the crowd and shouts of “We are all Charlie”, “Long live France!” and “Long live freedom!” could be heard.
The victims at the Hyper Cacher store have been named as Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen and François-Michel Saada. They will be buried together in Israel on Tuesday, reported AFP.
The main French Jewish communal organisation, the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France, condemned the attack. “These French fellow citizens were slaughtered coldly and pitilessly, because they were Jewish,” it said.
President Francois Hollande met leaders from the Jewish community at the Elysee Palace on Sunday morning.
President of CRIF Roger Cukierman told France2 after the meeting: “We are determined to continue to live our Jewish lives, to go to synagogue and go to kosher shops.”
President Hollande will visit the Grande Synagogue in Paris after the rally for a memorial service for the victims of Friday’s attack.
The hostage-taker at the supermarket, Amedy Coulibaly, died at the scene but police are still hunting his accomplice, Hayat Boumeddiene.
One Hyper Cacher employee has revealed how he saved Jewish shoppers by hiding them in a cold-store during the attack.
Meanwhile, Coulibaly's actions have been condemned by his mother and sister.
In a statement, they offered "sincere condolences" to the families of the victims.
"We absolutely do not share these extreme ideas. We hope there will not be any confusion between these odious acts and the Muslim religion," they said.
Today’s rally follows marches across France on Saturday joined by over 700,000 people.
Speaking to a large crowd outside the Hyper Cacher store, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "Today, we are all Charlie, we are all police officers, we are all Jews of France."
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has said the country will stay on high alert in the coming weeks.
As a mark of solidarity and a tribute to the victims of the attacks Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery will be lit with the colours of the French national flag.
Meanwhile in Germany a newspaper that reprinted some of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons following Wednesday’s attack has been firebombed.
According to police in Hamburg the offices of Hamburger Morgenpost were attacked early Sunday morning. Rocks were thrown through cellar windows followed by some kind of incendiary device.
The fire was put out quickly and no-one was injured. Two people have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
