About 700,000 French rally against terrorism

PARIS (Xinhua) - No to terrorism, said hundreds of thousands of people who took to the street on Saturday in France's main cities after deadly shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and hostage-taking in a Jewish supermarket.

In a press conference, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 700,000 protestors took part in Saturday's rallies in French main cities of Toulouse, Lille, Marseille, Lyon, Grenoble and Clermont-Ferrand.

In Toulouse, where a young self-styled Islamist killed seven people including three kids in 2012, people did not wait for Sunday national rally to condemn terrorism and racism.

According to police data, 120,000 people were walking in the streets in the southern city.

In Nantes, the march drew 70,000 demonstrators, asking "to live together, free, equal and in solidarity".

About 30,000 people took to the street in Nice, a similar number in Marseille and 40,000 in Lille, north France, local reports said.

France's massive rallies came after 17 people were killed in the last three days of violence which began with a shooting on Wednesday at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine known for printing cartoons ridiculing politicians and religious leaders.

Ten journalist and two policemen lost their lives in the attack. The perpetrators, identified as Cherif and Said Kouachi, were killed after police stormed their hideout in Paris suburbs on Friday.

Associated-armed man who killed a policewoman and claimed the lives of four hostages in a kosher supermarket, east Paris, was also shot dead by anti-terrorism units on Friday.

Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged a massive turnout on Sunday's "silent march" which Europe's main leaders will attend.

"This will be an unprecedented event that will undoubtedly go down in history and which will show the strength and dignity of the French people," Valls said.

"Terrorism wants us to hide away. The best answer to that is what French people are doing since Wednesday with spontaneous rallies," he added.