France: Shooting, hostage-taking in eastern Paris

PARIS (AP) -- A gunman took hostages at a kosher market on the eastern edges of Paris Friday, wounding several people, while the two suspects in the earlier deadly terror attack against a newspaper were cornered near Charles de Gaulle airport.

Officials could not immediately confirm a link between the two, but the coincidence spiked fears throughout Paris.

A police official said the hostage-taker at the kosher market, near Paris' Porte de Vincennes, is armed with an automatic rifle and there are multiple hostages and wounded.

Helmeted SWAT squads converged on the standoff. The French president ordered the country's top security official to the scene, an official in the presidency told The Associated Press.

French officials could not confirm reports of a link between the hostage-taker at the market Friday and the murder of a policewoman in Paris Thursday, or to the two suspects in Wednesday's attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Those attackers, who claimed allegiance to al-Qaida, have been on the run since gunning down 12 people and remain cornered by police about 30 kilometers (18 miles) away.

France has been high alert for other attacks since the newspaper massacre.