Paris police hunt gunman after Liberation attack
Hundreds of French police are searching for a man who attacked the head offices of a newspaper and a bank in Paris, critically wounding a photographer.
Advertisement
Images of the man - white, aged 35 to 45, about 1m75 tall (5ft 8in), with stubble and greying hair - have been found on CCTV and issued by police.
The man disappeared after taking hostage a motorist, who was forced to drive him to the Champs Elysees.
The same man also broke into the offices of a TV news channel on Friday.
Rifle jammed
The offices of major media organisations in Paris were placed under police protection after the attack on the Liberation newspaper on Monday morning.
CCTV images showed the man armed with a shotgun in Liberation's reception area.
The 23-year-old photographer is critically ill after he was shot twice from behind at close range.
Receptionists said a third round jammed in the gun and no further shots were fired.
A couple of hours later, the same man fired shots outside the headquarters of the bank Societe Generale, in the western business district of La Defense. No-one was hurt.
French President Francois Hollande said it was a priority to "stop this man who has tried to kill and could kill again".
Liberation published an editorial, written by its director, Nicolas Demorand, and headlined, "We will continue".
"Opening fire in a newspaper is an attack on the lives of men and women who were only doing their jobs - and on an idea, a collection of values which we call 'the republic'," he wrote.
Police believe the same man broke into the offices of the BFMTV news channel on Friday, threatening staff with a gun.
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says a man walked into BFMTV and emptied the chamber of his gun in the reception area.
"Next time, I will not miss you," the man said to an editor he threatened.
The gunman told his hostage he had recently been released from prison, BFMTV reported.
Police would be looking for traces of the gunman's DNA, particularly in the hostage's car, the channel said.
The gunman has not been identified and his motive is unclear.
