Authorities have not said if or how the situations are related, but both underscored France’s days-long nightmare and anti-terrorism fight.

GROCERY STORE HOSTAGE SITUATION

• Dozens of schools were placed under lockdown because of the hostage situation in eastern Paris, police said.

• Authorities haven’t said how many are being held, or if anyone has been killed.

• Police anti-terror units raced to the scene of the hostage situation early Friday afternoon, while ambulances blared as they moved away from it. Roads around the area have been blocked off.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

• Said Kouachi, one of the two brothers suspected of killing 12 people in and around the provocative satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, spent several months in Yemen in 2011, receiving weapons training and working with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based there, U.S. officials said Friday.

• French President Francois Hollande held a crisis meeting Friday afternoon with senior Cabinet members at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Those in attendance included Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, according to the French presidency.

• These aren’t the only incidents occupying French authorities. So, too, is the fatal shooting of the policewoman Thursday in Montrouge, a southern suburb of Paris. On Friday, French police released photos of a man and a woman — Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene, 26 — who they believe carried out this attack and are believed to be armed and dangerous.

STANDOFF IN DAMMARTIN-EN-GOELE

• In Dammartin-en-Goele — where the Kouachi brothers, the suspects in the massacre at the office of Charlie Hebdo, are believed to be surrounded — there have been media reports that gunmen are holding hostages, though Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre Henri Brandet tweeted that this is not confirmed.

• He tweeted that negotiating teams have made it their top priority trying to establish a dialogue with the extremists inside the building. Yves Albarello, who is in France’s parliament, said on French channel iTele that the two suspects told police by phone that they wanted to die as martyrs.

• There had been no assault, nor any injuries or deaths, as of 1 p.m. (7 a.m. ET), the Interior Ministry spokesman added.

• A salesman, who identified himself only as Didier, told France Info radio that he shook one of the gunman’s hands around 8:30 a.m. Friday as they arrived at a Dammartin-en-Goele printing business — the same place where the Kouachi brothers are believed to be surrounded. Didier told the public radio station that he first thought the man, who was dressed in black and heavily armed, was a police officer.

As he left, the armed man said, “Go, we don’t kill civilians.” Didier said, “It wasn’t normal. I did not know what was going on.”

• Dammartin-en-Goele residents have been told to stay inside, and schools are on lockdown, the mayor’s media office told CNN on Friday. Shops in the town have been told to close.

 ‘It’s like a war’

Henri Dunant elementary school should be a place to learn, to play, to be a kid.

Not to hide in fear of killers on the loose. But that’s what students did for hours Friday, there and at many other schools around Dammartin-en-Goele.

By late Friday afternoon, some of them were finally allowed to leave, though they weren’t alone. Police officers accompanied the children — holding their hands as they guided and, in some cases, lifted them onto an awaiting bus that would take them to safety.

The Interior Ministry reported the schoolchildren were being evacuated to sports facilities in nearby Mitry-Mory.

One father, who lives across the street from a school and asked to be identified only as Teddy, described the situation as “very worrying.”

“It’s like a war,” he said. “I don’t know how I will explain this to my 5-year-old son.”

Previous sightings?

Two days ago, it was all about Charlie Hebdo, the magazine whose offices came under ruthless attack, with staff members called out and summarily executed.

Now, it’s about Cherif Kouachi, 32, and said Kouachi, 34, the brothers allegedly behind that horrific violence, who set off a massive manhunt after they got away.

Authorities followed a lead Thursday morning from a gas station attendant near Villers-Cotterets, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Dammartin-en-Goele, whom the Kouachis reportedly threatened as they stole food and gas. Police think the brothers may have later fled on foot into nearby woodlands.

Northern France’s Picardy region is the focal point of the manhunt, with Prime Minister Valls putting it on the same, highest-possible alert level as has been in place since Wednesday in and around Paris.

And police spying down with night vision optics from helicopters say they think they caught a glimpse of them Thursday near Crepy-en-Valois, France — not far from the reported robbery.

That town and the gas station border on a patch of woods, and on another side of the forest, 30 to 40 police vehicles swarmed out from the town of Longpont.

Squads of officers armed with rifles — some in helmets and with shields — canvassed fields and forest.

They didn’t find the Kouachi brothers there. Instead, somehow, they’re believed to have moved to Dammartin-en-Goele.

Source: CNN