DAMMARTIN-EN-GOELE, France (AP) – A printing plant north of Paris reopened Thursday for the first time since it was badly damaged during a deadly standoff between police and two brothers who gunned down cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo newspaper.
President Francois Hollande presided over the re-opening in a sign of the national significance of the drama that unfolded there in January 2015. It was among a string of Islamic extremist attacks that have rocked France.
After visiting the now-rebuilt printing plant in the suburb town of Dammartin-en-Goele, Hollande honored the two men who were taken hostage that day with the Legion of Honor.
Michel Catalano, owner of the plant, was released by the two heavily armed attackers nearly two hours into the police siege. Lilian Lepere, a graphic designer, remained hidden in a tiny space under a sink for more than eight hours before an elite unit killed the two hostage-takers and released him.
Hollande hailed the “two French citizens who have shown the greatest courage” in the face of a fearsome ordeal. He said the printing plant was both a “symbol of barbarism” and a “symbol of what the human will is able to do” in rebuilding a nearly destroyed plant and reviving a suddenly halted business.