World leaders to march for unity in Paris

Global leaders have gathered in Paris ahead of a huge march in the of unity following three days of turmoil in the French capital that left 17 people dead.

Around 40 leaders, including UK Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will attend the rally, which is expected to attract around a million marchers.

In Paris with @fhollande for #MarcheRepublicaine #unitymarch -JM #CharlieHebdo #JeSuisCharlie #Malta #Malte #France

— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) January 11, 2015

Around 2,000 police officers and 1,350 soldiers are being deployed across Paris for security reasons. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve promised “exceptional” security measures for Sunday’s rally, including snipers positioned on rooftops. Cazaneuve will host a meeting amongst fellow interior ministers on Sunday before the march, to discuss the threat posed by militants.

The march will be led by relatives of the victims of last week’s tragic attacks and will commence at Place de la Republique at 15:00 (CMT). Before the march, French President Francois Hollande met up with leaders from the French Jewish community, following gunman Ameni Coulibali’s attack on a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris on Friday that left four people dead.

Jewish leaders said that Hollande had informed them that new security measures will be installed at all Jewish institutions on Sunday and Monday. 

"We have decided to live our Judaism and we will continue to live normally, as we can't give in to violence", said Roger Cukierman, President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions, after the meeting.

In a separate attack on Wednesday, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi assaulted the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people- including eight journalists and two police officers.

Although  Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers were both shot dead on Friday by police in two separate sieges, police are still hunting for accomplices of the three gunmen.

These include Hayat Boumeddiene, Coulibaly's partner. Turkish officials have said that she may have travelled through the country en route to Syria last week.

Meanwhile, German police have said that there has been an arson attack at the offices of a newspaper that reprinted Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

No-one was hurt in the assault on the Hamburg Morning Post in the early hours of Sunday.