World Bulletin/News Desk

At least four hostages at a siege of a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris have been killed, a police union source told Reuters.

Earlier, television images showed a group of hostages running out of the store.

Explosions have been heard at the scene of a standoff with a gunman holding at least six people hostage at the supermarket. A police source said the hostage-taker at the supermarket, who is believed to have had links to the same group as the brothers suspected of attacking the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, had also been killed.

French police earlier named Amedy Coulibaly as the suspect in the standoff with police.

Photos of Coulibaly and a former girlfriend, Hayat Boumeddien, were earlier tweeted on Friday by police who said the pair were wanted in connection with the killing of 27-year-old police officer Clarissa Jean-Philipp in Montrouge a day earlier.

Two people were killed and others injured after Coulibaly entered the supermarket in Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris, and opened fire, witnesses said.

One witness who gave his name as Fabian told French media: "An individual - African - who had a Kalashnikov ... went into the deli and started shooting."

Helicopters circled overhead as armed police surrounded the supermarket where women and children were being held by Coulibaly, who was armed with two Kalashnikov automatic rifles.

The incident came as the two men suspected of carrying out the gun massacre of 12 people at the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday - Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32 - were reported to have been killed after special forces and police moved in on the printing business where they were holed up in a village north of the French capital.

Coulibaly had earlier reportedly told police he would hold the hostages until the "siege" of the Kouachi brothers was ended.

Schools close to the scene Porte de Vincennes were earlier evacuated.

Policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe had been in the job for 15 days when she was gunned down as she attended a routine traffic accident on Thursday morning.