France has been shaken by three days of terrorist violence. Here is a chronology of the events, based on a statement by prosecutor Francois Molins, information from other officials and press reports:
 
Wednesday, Jan 7
 
About 11:30am: Two masked gunmen with automatic rifles storm the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in central Paris and open fire. Twelve people are killed, including the editor of the publication, several well-known cartoonists and two police officers.
 
The assailants shout "Allah is great" and "We have avenged the prophet," witnesses say. They flee the scene. Police find a jihadist flag, a black headband, 10 Molotov cocktails and a GoPro camera among the things left behind in a car by the attackers, along with an identity card belonging to Said Kouachi, 34.
 
On one of the Molotov cocktails, a fingerprint belonging to his brother, 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi, is later found. He had spent time in prison for helping send recruits to fight for al-Qaeda in Iraq.
 
About 12:30pm: France raises the alarm level for the greater Paris area to its highest level.
 
Around midday: A wave of solidarity with the victims spreads on Twitter and Facebook under the hashtag #jesuischarlie (I am Charlie). The slogan will have been used more than 3.5 million times on Twitter by Thursday evening.
 
1:11pm: The first of several crisis meetings is held at the Elysee.
 
In the evening: More than 100,000 people take to the streets throughout France under the "Je suis Charlie" slogan. Solidarity gatherings are also held in other countries.
 
Overnight: Several people with links to the Kouachi brothers are detained, including the wife of Cherif Kouachi and 18-year-old Mourad Hamyd, the brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi, who turned himself in to police.
 
Police release photos of the Kouachi brothers, after their names are leaked to the media and widely reported.
 
Thursday, Jan 8
 
About 8am: A second shooting takes place in southern Paris, with a gunman opening fire on police officers at the scene of a traffic accident. A 26-year-old municipal policewoman who was still in training is killed. Another officer is seriously injured.
 
Authorities initially say that there does not appear to be a link with the Charlie Hebdo attack. Witnesses help produce a police sketch of the suspect, and investigators later recover DNA from a face mask recovered near the crime scene which matches that of 32-year-old Amedy Coulibaly.

Investigators realise that the Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly know each other and had links with the same jihadist network. They find more than 500 phone calls made in 2014 between the wife of Cherif Kouachi and Coulibaly's companion.
 
9:26am: The Kouachi brothers hold up a gas station near the town of Villers-Cotterets, some 80km northeast of Paris. They demand food, displaying heavy weaponry.
 
12pm: A minute of silence is held across France in honour of the Charlie Hebdo victims, part of a national day of mourning.
 
5pm: The Interior Ministry announces that 88,000 members of the police and military forces have been mobilised for the manhunt and to ensure safety.
 
6pm: Thousands of people again take to the streets of Paris to protest the Charlie Hebdo attacks and express their solidarity with the victims.
 
In the evening: Police search a forest near Villers-Cotterets for the brothers. US media report that the Kouachi brothers had been on Washington's no-fly list and that Said Kouachi traveled to Yemen to receive military training from al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. Molins later says that Cherif Kouachi travelled to Yemen.
 
Friday, Jan 9
 
About 9am: The Kouachi brothers walk out of a forest to hijack a car, which they abandon when they encounter a police patrol. An exchange of gunfire occurs during which Said Kouachi is lightly injured at the throat.
 
About 10am: The brothers take shelter in an industrial building in Dammartin-en-Goelle, some 50km northeast of Paris. They take hostage the manager, but later release him. An employee hides under a sink in a dining room on the second floor. He is not discovered by the Kouachi brothers.
 
According to media reports, he provided information to police via text messages. Police negotiators leave messages on the brothers' phones, but they go unanswered.
 
Residents of the small town are told to stay in their homes and keep away from their windows. One inhabitant speaks of war-like conditions.
 
11:53am: French President Francois Hollande says everything has to be done to ensure the protection of the French people.
 
About 12pm: A cleric from the Islamist State claims that the radical militia was responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack, saying that "Britain, America and others" will be next.
 
1:55pm: Coulibaly takes hostages at a kosher grocery shop in Paris. He threatens to kill them all if police storm the industrial building in Dammartin-en-Goelle where the Kouachi brothers are entrenched.
 
Four hostages are later found dead in the shop. Police believe Coulibaly killed them at the beginning of the hostage-taking.
 
About 5pm: The Kouachi brothers exit the industrial building and start firing at police, who launch stun grenades. The brothers keep firing, leaving officers no choice but to shoot them, according to Molins. Both are killed. Two officers are lightly injured.
 
Police later find a loaded rocket launcher, 10 smoke grenades, two Kalashnikov rifles, two automatic rifles and a grenade on one of the brothers' bodies, which Molins said might have been meant to serve as a booby trap.
 
A few minutes later: Police storm the kosher grocery shop in the east of Paris. Coulibaly is killed, while four people are injured - mainly police officers.
 
A Kalashnikov rifle, a Skorpion machine gun, two handguns, around 15 civil-use dynamite sticks and a detonator are found by police.
 
- dpa