Up to a million people filled the boulevards and avenues of central Paris Sunday, walking arm-in-arm in a dramatic procession of national unity in the wake of terrorist attacks that killed 17 people last week.
More than 50 world leaders led the procession, walking at the head of a march that was intended to begin at Place de la Republique, but quickly became so large that it nearly paralyzed much of the central city.
"Paris is today the capital of the world," French President Francois Hollande told his government Sunday before he was joined by other heads of state at the march.
Among those marching were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Thousands of "Je Suis Charlie" signs were hoisted in commemoration of the attack on the offices of the satirical publication, Charlie Hebdo, which was the target of the initial attack.
But there were also large numbers of "Je Suis Juif" signs—"I am a Jew"—in recognition of a second attack on a kosher grocery, and others that said "I am police."
Citizens marched holding hands with their children and pushing them in strollers.
On Boulevard Beaumarche, where dozens of students from the Sorbonne university were gathered, a young violinist climbed on someone's shoulders and began playing the French national anthem, the Marseillaise, as the crowd joined her in song.
French politicians had urged people to "come in numbers" to pay tribute to the 17 victims and show defiance against the dead Islamist gunmen who carried out a three-day targeted campaign of violence.
As the rally was getting underway, a video emerged appearing to show the attacker at the grocery, Amedy Coulibaly, pledging allegiance to the militant Islamist group Islamic State, which has engaged in a violent insurgency in Iraq and Syria in an attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate.
The scale of the demonstration in Paris posed a mammoth security challenge in a capital city still noticeably on edge after the bloodiest week in recent history.
Security was ramped up across Paris and thousands more police and soldiers were mobilized.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls described the demonstration as a "cry for freedom" and said it was a historic event, while Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve sought to reassure the crowd that security officials would assure the safety of the event.
The route began at Place de la Republique, one of the many places where people have been gathering to lay flowers and light candles since the first attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices Wednesday. The rally was to end at Place de la Nation.
One cartoon carried by the crowd showed a man throwing a pen into the eye of a man holding a machine gun.
Quentin Schwarz, a Paris University student who grew up in a small town near the Alps where his father had been a regular Charlie Hebdo reader, came to the rally with his nose painted red, he said, to reflect the satiric spirit of the magazine.
Emilie Mignot, who works with a humanitarian group in Paris, said she hoped the day would be festive and celebratory. She wanted people to understand that despite being controversial at times, Charlie Hebdo poked fun at everyone.
"I am not in agreement with everything Charlie Hebdo did," she said. "I really believe if we laugh at everything, it really is OK for all religions."
As France prepared to mourn the loss of 17 innocent lives, a woman who is believed to have been an accomplice to at least one of the gunmen remained at large.
Authorities were searching for Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who was the partner of Amedy Coulibaly. He is believed to have killed a Paris policewoman Thursday and then entered a kosher grocery Friday taking hostages and killing four people.
Sources told French media that Boumeddiene may have left for Syria days before the terror attacks and officials believe she is "armed and dangerous."
She and Coulibaly also had close ties with Said and Cherif Kouachi, who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attack that left 12 dead, including the magazine's editor and several prominent cartoonists.
The brothers were known to authorities and on the U.S. no-fly list.
They died in a gun battle with police Friday after becoming cornered in a printing factory in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, near the Charles de Gaulle airport.
Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times8:04 a.m.: This story was updated with details of march.
4:57 a.m.: This story was updated with quotes from the crowd.
This story was first published at 4:01 a.m.
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