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Italian PM Renzi to join Paris rally on Sunday

Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would go to Paris on Sunday, when a mass rally will be held in the wake of the massacre at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Italian PM Renzi to join Paris rally on Sunday
Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would go to Paris on Sunday. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

"I will be with @FHollande in Paris on Sunday. #JeSuisCharlie. We will not allow fear to change us #Europe," he said on his personal Twitter account in a message in both French and Italian.

 
The announcement came after French police stormed a printworks and a Jewish supermarket on Friday, killing two brothers wanted for the Charlie Hebdo attack and an apparent accomplice who had taken hostages in two separate sieges that traumatized France.
 
Explosions rocked a small printing firm in the village of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, and smoke poured from the building as the heavily armed forces mounted their assault as night fell.
 
The two Islamists launched a desperate escape bid, charging out of the building firing at the security forces before being cut down in their tracks, a security source said.
 
Meanwhile, in the east of Paris, gunfire erupted as police stormed the Jewish store, where at least one armed assailant had seized five hostages after two people were killed in a gun battle.
 
The gunman was also killed, security sources said, as terrified hostages were seen running out of the store.
 
The dramatic climax to the two stand-offs brought to an end more than 48 hours of fear and uncertainty in the country that began when the two brothers slaughtered 12 people at Charlie Hebdo in the bloodiest attack on French soil in half a century.
 
The hostage-taker in the eastern Porte de Vincennes area of Paris was suspected of gunning down a policewoman in southern Paris on Thursday and knew at least one of the Charlie Hebdo gunmen.