French Hostage-Takers Willing to 'Die As Martyrs': Lawmaker

MOSCOW, January 9 (Sputnik) — One of the two hostage-takers responsible for the Wednesday attack on the Charlie Hebdo weekly magazine in Paris, and currently under siege in the French town of Dammartin-en-Goele, expressed his will to "die as a martyr," the country's parliamentarian said Friday.

"There is a contact that has been established with the two terrorists… There was a telephone conversation and one of them said 'We want to die as martyrs,'" Yves Albarello, National Assembly Member, representing the Seine-et-Marne department was quoted as saying by RTL.

The current situation in the French town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the two brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, French nationals of Algerian origin, are encircled by law enforcement, has reportedly become a standoff, with the killers holed up with a hostage in a building in an industrial area.

According to media reports from the site, local residents are shut in their homes, and forbidden to walk outside. Personnel of GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group), special task force of the French army, are operating at the scene.

The two are suspected to be behind the Wednesday attack at the office of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly magazine in Paris, which left 12 people killed and 11 injured. The newspaper's cartoons lampooning popular figures and organizations are thought to be the motive for the attack.