A HOSTAGE hidden inside a cardboard box while the Charlie Hebdo gunmen held up a family print works business was giving police crucial information throughout the horror siege, reports say.

Lilian Lepere, 27, a graphic designer, was texting police while brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi — suspected of slaughtering 12 people at the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine on Wednesday — held the company’s director, Michael Catalano, hostage.

media_camera Hidden ... hostage Lilian Lepere, concealed inside a cardboard box, gave police vital information about the Kouachi brothers as they held up a printworks business and its owner hostage. Picture: Supplied

Police said the man communicated with them for three hours before emerging unharmed.

The Kouachi brothers stormed the print works shop Dammartin-en-Goele about 9.30am Friday, local time, and Mr Lepere reacted quickly and hid.

“I hid on the first floor. I think they have killed everyone,” he wrote.

“Tell the police to take action.”

But the only people to die in the dramatic siege were the brothers, who were shot dead by special forces as they burst out of their hide-out. Security forces had surrounded the building for most of the day, exchanging explosions and gunshots with the now-dead gunmen for hours.

media_camera Police marksmen take up a position on a roof in Dammartin-en-Goele, where two brothers suspected of slaughtering 12 people in the Charlie Hebdo massacre held one person hostage. Picture: Dominique Faget, AFP

Meanwhile, terrified customers hid inside the kosher grocery store fridge during the second siege to have beset Paris in less than 24 hours.

When gunman Amedy Coulibaly burst shooting into the kosher grocery near the Porte de Vincennes neighbourhood in Paris at midday, up to 30 shoppers scrambled to save their lives, hiding in the store fridge.

media_camera Gunman ... Amedy Coulibaly, aged 32, who was killed in the kosher grocery store siege in the Porte de Vincennes area of Paris. Coulibaly also killed four hostages during the standoff. Picture: Getty Images

According to The Mirror, the petrified customers huddled in silence for five hours, terrified they would be hauled out and shot.

One survivor, 36-year-old Johan Dorre, used his phone to call a friend and his uncle Haim during the ordeal.

media_camera Terror ... Relieved hostages of the kosher grocery store siege are led to safety by police. Picture: Supplied

Mr Dorre’s other uncle, Jacob Katrzona (Haim’s brother), told the Daily Mail that his nephew and the other shoppers “were forced to huddle together like frightened animals to avoid hypothermia”.

“He was shopping for the kosher cakes and meat delicacies which we Jewish people enjoy on the Holy Day when he heard shots being fired above on the ground floor and immediately took cover with other shoppers in the basement.”

Mr Katrzona told of waiting for five hours, terrified he would not see his nephew again.

“Then we just stood at the barriers for five hours and waited for news. It was terrible — the longest five hours of my life.”

media_camera Finally safe ... A security officer directs released hostages after they stormed a kosher market to end a hostage situation. Picture: Michael Euler, AP

Four hostages were killed during the kosher grocery siege.

French TV station BFM spoke to Coulibaly during the siege, who told them he was keeping 16 people hostage and had chosen the grocer specifically “because it was Jewish”.

He also said he “synchronised” attacks with the Kouachi brothers, who were in charge of Charlie Hebdo, while Coulibaly “started on the police officers”.

An official said Coulibaly is also believed responsible for the roadside killing of a Paris policewoman on Thursday.

Originally published as Hostages ‘huddled like animals’ in fridge