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France deploys thousands in hunt for massacre suspects

French police stop a passing car in Longpont, northern France, on January 8, 2015/AFP

French police stop a passing car in Longpont, northern France, on January 8, 2015/AFP

PARIS, France, Jan 9 – France deployed tens of thousands of security forces in the hunt for two brothers accused of killing 12 people in an Islamist attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, as the pair spent a second night on the run.

The manhunt came as the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 warned that Islamist militants were planning other “mass casualty attacks against the West” and that intelligence services may be powerless to stop them.

The attacks have sparked a global outpouring of tributes and solidarity. US President Barack Obama was the latest to sign a book of condolence with the message “Vive la France!” as thousands gathered in Paris on a day of national mourning to honour the dead.

In the rural Aisne region northeast of Paris, elite armed police and paramilitary forces backed by helicopters searched a wooded area near where the fugitives had earlier robbed a petrol station and abandoned their getaway car following Wednesday’s shooting in the capital.

The brothers were thought to have carried out the attack, the worst in France for half a century, in revenge for the weekly’s repeated publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed. READ: Scared but defiant: cartoonists raise pencils to Charlie Hebdo

Around 24 hours into the manhunt, the brothers were identified after holding up the petrol station 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Paris, before fleeing again, possibly on foot and still armed with at least a Kalashnikov, police said.

Special police units rushed to the scene, where a maximum security alert was declared in addition to the capital.

Officers in heavy black bulletproof vests searched outbuildings, rifles at the ready, under the nervous eyes of local residents.

“I live near the woods,” said village resident Roseline, a grandmother. “I’m afraid. Night is falling and they could be hiding nearby.”

Islamic State, the militant group sowing terror across swathes of Iraq and Syria, hailed the brothers as “heroes” on its Al-Bayan radio station.

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French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that 88,000 security forces had been mobilised and that an international meeting on terrorism would take place in Paris on Sunday.

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