Print Firm Boss' Secret Helped End French Siege

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A print firm boss taken hostage by the Charlie Hebdo killers has told Sky News how he told a colleague to hide, in an act of heroism which helped police capture the fugitives.

Cherif and Said Kouachi turned up at the factory on their third day on the run after killing 12 people at the satirical magazine in Paris on Wednesday.

Michel Catalano described how he told an employee to hide in the back of the building when he saw the gunmen arriving from the window.

Unknown to the terrorist brothers, the man, named as Lilian Lepere, secretly texted information to police while hiding in under a sink before forces stormed the building on an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goele, north of Paris.

Mr Catalano, who said he did not expect to live, told how he was "terrified" throughout the ordeal that the brothers would discover the hidden worker.

He had been preparing for an ordinary day of business when the doorbell rang at around 8.30am.

He said: "I could see from a window that there was a man with a rocket launcher and a Kalashnikov.

"I could immediately see there was a situation of danger. I told my employee to hide. I knew two of us couldn't hide.

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A huge stream of people, estimated to contains hundreds of thousands of people, takes to the sea front in Nice

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Those at the head of the march carried at a banner that echoed the statement repeated by those opposed to the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine - "Je suis Charlie"

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Many in the crowd also held banners with the same slogan

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"At that point I thought that was the end. They came in, they weren't aggressive. They said 'don't worry, we just want to come in'."

He offered the intruders a drink and made coffee for them before one of his suppliers arrived at around 9pm.

"I told those people that my supplier really had nothing to do there so could they let him go, so they did.

"So then we went down and went towards my supplier. I told him to leave so he immediately understood the situation so he left."

He described how he was worried that the Kouachis would find his employee's hiding place.

"I didn't know where Lilian was hidden. I knew he was hidden but I had no idea where. I didn't want them to go to the end of the building."

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A French police officer carries flowers outside the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket

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Mr Catalano said he dressed a superficial wound that one of the brothers had sustained.

He recalled: "When I thought one of them was tense I said 'I can look after you'."

They rejected his request to leave once before eventually agreeing before the dramatic police assault on the building during which the brothers died.

He said: "I wasn't scared. I don't know how I managed to stay calm under those circumstances - it was a situation I have never been faced with before in my life.

"After all, right from the start, I imagined I wouldn't be alive any longer (at the end of the day).

"I must admit that in fact they (the brothers) weren't aggressive as far as I was concerned.

"I didn't get the impression they would harm me, as unbelievable as it sounds. Perhaps they had an ounce of humanity because they let me out."

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