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Security has been stepped up across France following yesterday’s terrorist attack which killed 12 people at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
French police launched a huge manhunt for two of the attackers who escaped by car after shooting dead some of France’s top cartoonists as well as two police officers.
The youngest of three French nationals being sought turned himself in to police, an official at the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
Increased security across France in the wake of the attack has seen Paris placed on the highest alert.
Counter terrorism patrols were also placed at landmarks throughout New York City, including at the French Consulate and several media company offices after the attacks at the Charlie Hebdo office.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office updated its travel advice to France, saying: “If you’re in Paris or the Ile de France area, take extra care and follow the security advice issued by the French authorities.
“Due to ongoing threats to France by Islamist groups, and recent French military intervention against ISIL, the French government has warned the public to be especially vigilant and has reinforced its own domestic and overseas security measures.”
Previous incidents attributed to Islamist extremists have included the shooting of three soldiers and four civilians in Toulouse, and a knife attack on a soldier near Paris.
French president Francois Hollande called the Charlie Hebdo attack a “cowardly murder” and declared a day of national mourning today (Thursday).
France last year reinforced its anti-terrorism laws and was on alert after calls from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.
The last major terrorism alert in Paris was in the mid-1990s when the Algerian Armed Islamic Group carried out a spate of attacks, including the bombing of a commuter train in 1995 which killed eight people and injured 150.