PARIS (AP) -- A police official says the man who has taken at least five people hostage in a kosher market in Paris appears linked to the newsroom massacre earlier this week that left 12 people dead.

Emergency services workers arrive at a hostage-taking situation at a kosher market in Paris (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
Emergency services workers arrive at a hostage-taking situation at a kosher market in Paris (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
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The official, who was not authorized to speak about the situation, said the man opened fire in the market Friday and declared "you know who I am."

Paris police released a photo of Amedy Coulibaly as a suspect in the killing Thursday of a policewoman, and the official named him as the man holed up in the market. He said some hostages have been gravely wounded.

He said a second suspect, a woman named Hayet Boumddiene, is the gunman's accomplice.

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.

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