TerrorismGunmen kill 12 at the office of French satirical magazine critical of Islam
Two hooded Islamist gunmen have attacked the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing ten journalists and editors and two policemen and injuring seven, several of them in critical condition. The assailants entered the editorial offices of the magazine and opened fire with assault rifles, before escaping the building and engaging the police on the street outside in a heavy fire exchange, killing two of the police officers. They managed to get into their car and fleets with police in the street outside before escaping by car.
Two hooded Islamist gunmen have attacked the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing ten journalists and editors and two policemen and injuring seven, several of them in critical condition.
The assailants entered the editorial offices of the magazine and opened fire with assault rifles, before escaping the building and engaging the police on the street outside in a heavy fire exchange, killing two of the police officers.
They managed to get into their car and fleets with police in the street outside before escaping by car.
Le Monde reports that the two masked assailants shouted “Allah Akbar”“Nous avons vengé le prophète.”
President Francois Hollande described the event as a terrorist attack “of exceptional barbarity.”
Hundreds of police officers and members of the security services are now searching for the two gunmen, concentrating on neighborhoods and banlieues with large Muslim populations.
Charlie Hebdo, a no-holds-barred satirical weekly, has made a name for itself for its irreverence when reporting – and mocking – the news. The offices of the magazine were fire-bombed in November 2011 a day after it carried a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad which Muslims found offensive.
The BBC reports that the latest tweet on Charlie Hebdo’s account was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
President Hollande, while visiting the scene of the attack, told reporters that people had been “murdered in a cowardly manner,” adding that “We are threatened because we are a country of liberty.”
Prime Minister David Cameron said in a tweet: “The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press.”
Le Monde notes that among the those killed are four cartoonists, including the magazine’s editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier. Charbonnier, 47, had received death threats in the past and was living under police protection.
Footage shot by an eyewitness and posted on social networks shows two armed men dressed in black approach a wounded police officer lying on a pavement. One of the men shot the officer in the head, before both men were seen running back toward a black vehicle and driving away.
The French police issued an alert to French media outlets to pay extra attention to security.
