Over 3 million take part in Paris Unity March in protest of Charlie Hebdo magazine bombing

Lyse Doucet reports from Paris:

 ''Francois Hollande was at the head of the march''

The rally, led by relatives of the victims of last week's attacks, began at the Place de la Republique and concluded in the Place de la Nation.
Several other French cities also held rallies. The interior ministry said turnout across France was at least 3.7 million, including up to 1.6 million in Paris - where sheer numbers made an exact tally difficult.
World leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, EU President Donald Tusk, and Jordan's King Abdullah II joined the beginning of the Paris march.
"Paris is the capital of the world today," French leader Francois Hollande said.
The leaders observed a minute's silence before the march began.

More than three million people across France marched for unity

Marchers held a banner reading "Where is Charlie?" and placards reading "I am here"

Demonstrators held pencils to show their support for free expression

Many French people took part in marches outside Paris, including at this rally in Reims

About 2,000 police officers and 1,350 soldiers - including elite marksmen on rooftops - were deployed in the capital to protect participants.
The Paris march was split into two routes for security purposes.

Marchers chanted "liberte" ("freedom") and "Charlie", in reference to Charlie Hebdo magazine.
Some waved French flags, cheered, and sang the national anthem.
Samia Ghali, mayor of one of Marseille's districts, told the BBC that people there were marching for tolerance and co-existence. Marseille is the city with the largest Muslim population in France.

At the scene - Patrick Jackson, BBC News, Paris

Marchers headed towards the Place de la Nation for the final rally

So many people were crammed into the Place de la Republique that it created a bottleneck. Some marchers had to filter down side streets to reach the Place de la Nation for the final rally.
They streamed past the cafe where I was working, wrapped against the chill as the sun went down, so many faces beaming with pride, voices still not too hoarse for another yell of "Charlie!" Their hands must have been sore from clapping.
"This is serious, this was an attack on freedom, we cannot allow this," said Laurent. The march was so crowded it took him, his wife Isabelle and his daughter Coline two hours with to walk just 2km (1.2 miles).
"Our values are liberty, equality and fraternity and we cannot allow terrorists to dictate to us," he added.
"We had to get into the streets to show we are not afraid," said Isabelle.

Solidarity marches were also held in world cities including London, Madrid, Cairo, Montreal, Beirut, Sydney and Tokyo.
Gunman video Ahead of the rally, a video emerged appearing to show the supermarket attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, pledging allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.

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The video appears to show Amedy Coulibaly explaining his motivation

In the video, he said he was working with the Charlie Hebdo attackers: "We have split our team into two... to increase the impact of our actions."
He killed four hostages seized at the Hyper Cacher supermarket on Friday before being shot dead by police. The four victims will be buried in Israel on Tuesday.
Coulibaly is also believed to have shot dead a policewoman in Montrouge on Thursday, and has now been linked by prosecutors to the shooting and wounding of a 32-year-old jogger in a park in Fontenay-les-Roses, in south-west Paris, on Wednesday.

Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham, Yoav Hattab and Francois-Michel Saada were killed at the kosher supermarket

His partner, Hayat Boumeddiene, is still wanted by police - although she is thought to have fled France last week. Officials believe she may have entered Turkey en route to Syria.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says France will stay on high alert in the coming weeks.

culled from bbc.co.uk