#JeSuisCharlie tweeted more than five million times

Twitter users have posted the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag, a sign of solidarity with the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, more than 5 million times, Twitter France said Friday.

The symbolic five-million mark, an unprecedented number in the history of France-related hashtags, was reached after elite forces killed the brothers suspected of the massacre and a jihadist ally in a dramatic finale to three blood-soaked days.

The hashtag had been tweeted 5,044,740 times by 5pm (2200 GMT) Friday, with a peak of 6,300 tweets per minute.

[PHOTO GALLERY]: FRENCH SHOOTING

The number still trails far behind the more than 18,136,000 times #Ferguson was tweeted in the aftermath of a fatal shooting of a young black American by a white police officer in the Missouri town -- the most tweeted hashtag of 2014.

On Friday the heavily-armed Charlie Hebdo massacre suspects were cornered in a tiny town northeast of Paris while an ally took terrified shoppers hostage in a Jewish supermarket, where four died and seven were hurt including three police officers. [MORE PHOTOS]: TWIN HOSTAGE DRAMAS GRIP FRANCE

The Charlie Hebdo gunmen had kept France gripped with fear since they slaughtered 12 people Wednesday in the offices of the satirical magazine.