‘Armed and dangerous’ girlfriend of dead suspect in Paris attack sought

French authorities Saturday were hunting for the girlfriend of one of three dead Islamist gunmen Saturday, now considered the most wanted woman in France.

As the nation grappled with the aftermath of three days of terror, security forces remained intensely focused on finding 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene.

She is suspected of being an accomplice to her partner, Amedy Coulibaly, who is believed to have murdered a Paris policewoman Thursday.

Authorities say she may have also helped Coulibaly take more than 15 people hostage at a Paris grocery store Friday, resulting in four dead.

Images published in Le Monde newspaper showed Boumeddiene covered head-to-toe in black Islamic robes and headgear, menacingly pointing a crossbow at the camera.

Police describe her as “armed and dangerous.”

The deadliest episode in recent French history left 17 dead, several injured and panicked a nation now asking itself how to handle home-grown Muslim extremists.

The carnage began Wednesday morning, when Said and Cherif Kouachi entered the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people, including eight journalists and two police officers.

The brothers then went on the run and were finally cornered in a printing factory in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele about 30 miles northeast of Paris near the Charles de Gaulle airport Friday.

While attention was focused on that police operation, Coulibaly entered a kosher grocery store in the east of Paris and took several people hostage Friday.

He is believed to have shot and killed a policewoman dispatched to investigate a report of a traffic accident in the south of Paris on Thursday morning.

The two tense standoffs ended nearly simultaneously with all three gunmen dead and Boumeddiene’s whereabouts unknown.

As police stormed the kosher grocery where Coulibaly was holed up, the Kouachi brothers exited their hideout and opened fire on officers, who had them surrounded, authorities said.

The siblings had also taken a hostage but he was released unharmed and, unbeknownst to them, a second man who had been hiding out in a second-floor office, feeding vital information to police via cellphone, also emerged safe.

Authorities now believe there were strong ties between the Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly and Boumeddiene.

Coulibaly had reportedly telephoned BFM TV in the afternoon and when asked if there was a link between him and the Kouachi brothers, he responded, “Yes, we synchronized ourselves for that, the operations.”

Paris’ chief prosecutor Francois Molins also said Boumeddiene was in “constant and sustained” communication with the girlfriend of Cherif Kouachi.

“More than 500 calls” were made between the two women last year, he said, according to French media reports.

French President Francois Hollande called an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday morning and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced the deployment of an extra 320 military personnel.

He warned the nation to remain vigilant.

“We are exposed to risks,” Cazeneuve said.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls gave a long and impassioned speech Saturday praising the security forces for their valiant work, and spoke about the terrorists’ desire to divide the nation and “attack symbols of France.”

“The best response is national unity,” he said.

Valls said the men deliberately took aim at journalists because they represent freedom of expression, the police who seek to protect the public, and also the Jewish community.

“They wanted to annihilate a newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, that must live on.”

But he too warned that the threat of another extremist attack remained very real and vigilance was still needed.

“We must not let our guard down,” he said.

Many question remain unanswered, including how these three men were able to get their hands on such an array of weaponry including Kalashnikov and other assault rifles, and why were not under closer watch when they were already known to authorities who monitor security threats.

Both Kouachi brothers were on a U.S. no-fly list and Said, 34, had been trained in weapons handling in 2011 by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, U.S. officials said.

Cherif Kouachi, 32, had been convicted of terrorism-related charges in France in 2008 for recruiting insurgents to fight against U.S. forces in Iraq.

He served 18 months, and authorities declined to prosecute him in a separate case involving a plot to free a fellow militant from prison.

Events were taking place across France to commemorate the attacks and makeshift memorials sprung up around Paris.

Residents flocked to the Charlie Hebdo offices and the kosher grocery to lay flowers, light candles and pay their respects to the victims.

Meanwhile Paris was gearing up for a massive solidarity rally Sunday which was expected to attract thousands and will be attended by several European leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Security was being amped up ahead of the march, and Cazeneuve vowed: “All the measures are in place to make sure this event takes place securely.”