'Scared' French Students Evacuated During Massacre Standoff

As suspects were holed up, 1,000 students were trapped in nearby schools.

ByABC News
January 9, 2015, 8:52 AM

— -- "Scared" students and teachers were being evacuated in a French town today due to a hostage standoff involving two gunmen suspected of carrying out the massacre at a French satirical newspaper.

Teacher Marianne Genet described the tense scene in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele.

"They say to us to stay in the high school and be calm, but we can’t because we are really scared," Genet said.

The suspects holed up in a printing business in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, and the threat they posed left more than 1,000 students trapped inside nearby schools.

Early Friday, in a statement on their website, the town encouraged residents to shelter in place and said that students were locked down and safe in their schools.

About 160 children were being taken to safety from Ecole Primaire du Grand Chene, a school principal said. Earlier, about 900 people were trapped in another high school nearby.

Dammartin-en-Goele is located about 19 miles northeast of Paris and sits next to the Foret de Rez, the forest where the suspects were spotted Thursday. According to the last census in 2006, Dammartin-en-Goele had a population of just over 8,000 people.