- Lilian Lepere, 27, hid in a box during siege with Charlie Hebdo gunmen
- He was initially trapped inside with father Pascal Lepère who then escaped
- Graphic designer sent desperate text calling for police to take action
- His intelligence input gave police a critical edge in timing the assault
- Al Qaeda brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi were both shot dead by police
- Hostage, Michel Catalano, is believed to have been rescued alive
By Tom Kelly and Jenny Awford and Claire Duffin and Hannah Roberts for the Daily Mail
Holed up in a printworks and surrounded by police, killers Said and Cherif Kouachi were unaware that commandos were being tipped off about their every move.
For, hidden in a cardboard box just yards away was 27-year-old Lilian Lepere.
And he was able to alert police about the location of the gunmen and the layout of the building.
For more than six hours the graphic designer passed on crucial information until the siege ended in a bloody shootout as the terrorist brothers, who had vowed to die as martyrs, burst out from their lair all guns blazing and were mown down in a hail of bullets.
From inside his claustrophobic hideout, Mr Lepere had first sent a text message to his father when the Kouachis took over the print works at Dammartin-en-Goele, a small town just north of Paris.
He wrote: ‘I am hidden on the first floor. I think they have killed everyone. Tell the police to intervene.’
It is understood he was in a locked room. He continued to provide vital information to police and special forces via his phone as snipers took up position on surrounding rooftops and helicopters buzzed overhead.
Mr Lepere emerged unscathed from the shootout and was taken to a psychological assessment unit where it is understood he was to be reunited with his family last night.
A hostage held at gunpoint by the terrorists was also freed. The Kouachi brothers had been on the run since killing 12 journalists and police officers in a terror raid on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Wednesday.
As the huge manhunt for them continued, they dumped their stolen getaway car and fled on foot into a forest 50 miles north of the capital.
This morning they managed to evade the huge police dragnet and just after 8am hijacked a grey Peugeot 206 being driven by a woman teacher near Montagny-Sainte-Felicite, 30 miles north-east of Paris. Jean Paul Douet, the mayor of the village, said a colleague saw the men force the woman into the back seat.
‘She saw their weapons, and in particular their rocket-propelled grenade launcher,’ he said.
The teacher was freed unhurt soon afterwards, then dozens of police cars began chasing the fugitives along the N2 highway towards Paris. During the chase, shots were exchanged.
The brothers dumped their car and fled on foot to a family-run printing company on an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goele.
They burst into the business – posing as armed police – and took the company’s boss hostage.
Armed police surrounded the building and sealed off the town of 8,000 people.
All businesses closed, nearly 1,000 children were evacuated from schools and the streets were left deserted except for lines of police vehicles and units of heavily armed officers clad in combat gear. Masked and helmeted troopers with automatic weapons were seen peering out of a blue helicopters buzzing overhead.
Michel Carn, a resident, said: ‘The whole zone is surrounded. We are confined to our homes.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2903870/The-hostage-terrorists-didn-t-know-Print-worker-hid-box-texted-police-Charlie-Hebdo-gunmen-held-boss-captive-final-showdown.html
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