The French authorities described Hayat Boumeddiene, believed to be Coulibaly’s girlfriend, as "armed and dangerous", according to the news agency.
Boumeddiene was allegedly with Coulibaly, when he reportedly killed a policewoman on Thursday. A day later, he took several people hostage at a kosher store, Hyper Cacher, near Porte de Vincennes in Paris. Four of them died before officers stormed the store. 15 people were reportedly rescued.
Five dead, including gunman, in Paris supermarket hostage drama. #AFP pic.twitter.com/5ZlHxM2Gbv
— AFP Photo Department (@AFPphoto) 9 января 2015
It remains unclear, whether Boumeddiene was at the Jewish supermarket at the time of the attack.
A man claiming to be Coulibaly spoke to BFM TV, a French news channel, during the hostage crisis. He said that he was a member of the Islamic State (IS), a radical Sunni group, controlling large parts of Iraq and Syria. The organization is notorious for its brutality.
Coulibaly met Cherif Kouachi in jail in 2005, according to the International Business Times. In 2013, the former was sentenced to five years in prison for a failed attempt to help Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, an Algerian Islamist, escape from prison. However, he was released early.
The Kouachis were killed during a police operation in Dammartin-en-Goele on Friday.
Boumeddiene and Cherif Kouachi’s girlfriend made over 500 calls to one another in 2014, AFP reports, citing Francois Molins, Paris’ chief prosecutor.
