Policewoman dies after shooting incident in Paris

A policewoman and city official were first reported to have been wounded in a shooting in southern Paris on Thursday, a day after the killings of 12 people at and near the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Later, the policewoman died of her injuries.

The gunman was said to have been wearing a flak jacket and carrying one - or possibly two - automatic weapons.

Paris police and a security official said it was not clear if the incident was linked to the killings on Wednesday, although police have been deployed in large numbers throughout the city after it was placed on maximum alert.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (pictured above, at the scene of the latest shooting) was said to have rushed to the scene in Montrouge, near the city's Porte de Chatillon. He said the man was on the run.

Police manhunt

Cazeneuve had said earlier that seven people were arrested in connection with Wednesday's attack. Police said all seven had been linked to the two main suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack. Cherif and Said Kouachi, aged 32 and 34, were both already under watch by security services.

A third suspect, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, turned himself into police in Charleville-Mezieres, near the Belgian border, on Thursday morning. French media quoted friends as saying he was in a school class at the time of the attack.

The two masked men, who burst into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine on Wednesday morning, killing some of France's most outspoken journalists, were still on the run on Thursday morning.

France began a day of mourning for the journalists and police officers killed. French tricolor flags flew at half mast throughout the country.

In an apparently separate incident, the AFP news agency reported there had been an explosion at a kebab shop near to a mosque in the eastern French town of Villefranche-sur-Saone. A local official told the agency that "a criminal act" had taken place.

rc/tj (AFP, dpa)