French hunt for gunman's girlfriend after bloody siege finale

French forces were Saturday frantically hunting for the girlfriend of a gunman as the country mourned 17 dead in three blood-soaked days that shook the nation to its core. After President Francois Hollande warned the threats facing France "weren't over" and groups issued chilling warnings of fresh attacks, authorities pursued 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene, said to be "armed and dangerous."
She is the partner of Amedy Coulibaly, killed on Friday when security forces mounted a massive assault on a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris where he had taken terrified shoppers hostage. Coulibaly, who said he was a member of the Islamic State jihadist group, slaughtered four hostages during the assault and called friends from the scene urging them to stage further attacks.
He and Boumeddiene are the prime suspects in the earlier murder of policewoman on Thursday just outside the French capital. Hollande held an emergency meeting of key ministers early Saturday, hours after the explosive end to twin sieges that also resulted in the death of two brothers who began the terror spree on Wednesday when they massacred 12 at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after the meeting that France was keeping the highest possible security alert level for the greater Paris area. And as France's bloodiest week in decades drew to a close, the mood began to turn to one of grim national reflection with preparations in full swing for what was already being hailed as a "historic" march for national unity, attended by a host of world leaders.
In a sombre address after Friday's sieges, Hollande said: "I call on all the French people to rise up this Sunday, together, to defend the values of democracy, freedom and pluralism to which we are attached." But as leaders urged the country to pull together in grief and determination, questions were also mounting over how the three men - brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, and Coulibaly - had slipped through the security net after it emerged that all three were known to the intelligence agencies.