Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

France still on edge as 6 terrorists may still be at large

January 13, 2015 10:27 IST

France is on high alert after officials said that other members of a terror cell may still be at large after last week’s attacks in Paris on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a supermarket.

Armed security patrol outside a Jewish School in the Jewish quarter of the Marais district as children make their way home, days after the siege at the supermarket. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The official said that as many as six members of a terrorist cell may still be at large, including a man who was seen driving a car registered to the widow of one of the slain gunmen.

The French police were also on the lookout for the car registered to Hayat Boumeddiene, the widow of Amedy Coulibaly, the man behind the sinister supermarket attack.

Turkish officials on Monday had announced that she had made her way to Syria. 

French troops patrol around the Eiffel Tower. Around 10,000 troops have been deployed in the area. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The latest development came as new video emerged purportedly showing Boumeddiene slipping into Turkey, days before her partner killed five people at the kosher market as part of a dual terror attack, and before she fled towards terrorist safe havens in Syria.

France has deployed 10,000 troops to protect sensitive sites including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods in the wake of the attacks that killed 17 people last week.

About 4,700 of the security forces are assigned to protect France's 717 Jewish schools, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

AGENCIES