Six years ago, to the day, the elite GIGN gendarmes stormed Dammartin-en-Goële against the Kouachi brothers, the terrorists responsible for the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Having taken part in the operation, Romain Agure testifies to his experience in a book.
Europe 1 met him.
TESTIMONY
On January 9, 2015, the assault on the printing press in Dammartin-en-Goële put an end to the hunt for Chérif and Saïd Kouachi.
Today, a former member of GIGN testifies for the very first time.
In a book to be published Thursday, entitled
Kouachi: The Final Assault
, Romain Agure tells from the inside the hunt for Charlie Hebdo terrorists and this fateful moment of the intervention at the Dammartin printing press.
At the microphone of Europe 1, he describes the violence of the exchange of gunfire, when the two terrorists come out of the printing press.
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"We had made a passage through the fence to access the back of the printing house. And when we arrive at this angle, we hear pulling on the front ... so it's a few meters," explains Romain Augure.
The assault will only last a few seconds: "On the radio we hear, 'they're going out, they're going out'. And there, a deluge of fire begins."
"An important page of terrorism has turned"
While the bullets are firing, the feelings jostle in the head of the soldier: "We say to ourselves 'this is it, this is the moment'. We are a little caught up in the action."
On leaving, Chérif Kouachi moves to the corner of the printing press and shoots the GIGN units posted in the front.
"It cuts the hedge behind [them]. There is a comrade who is hidden behind a tree which is made as small as possible."
When his team enters the printing house, the radio informs them that the terrorists have been neutralized at the front of the building.
The operation is complete.
"It is an important page of terrorism which was turned on January 9, 2015", he concludes.