Editor, 3 cartoonists among 12 dead in terror attack on French magazine office in Paris
Paris/London/Washington: At least 12 people, including two policemen, were killed when gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher opened fire in the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, Paris prosecutors said.
Some of the best-known cartoonists in France and 2 policemen were among the 12 killed, a judicial source said.
Editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, and 3 cartoonists known as Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski were killed in the attack.
"Hey! We avenged the Prophet Muhammed! We killed Charlie Hebdo," one of the men shouted, according to a video filmed from a nearby building and broadcast on French television. Other video images showed two gunmen in black at a crossroads who appeared to fire down one of the streets. A cry of "Allahu akbar!" - Arabic for "God is great"- could be heard among the gunshots.
Read: World expresses shock at attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine
French President Francois Hollande was on his way to the scene of the shooting and called an emergency cabinet meeting, the presidency said.
France raised its alert to the highest level, President called shooting a 'terror attack', saying 'several terrorist attacks were thwarted in recent weeks'.
Paris shooting caught on tape
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Clad all in black with hoods and machine guns and speaking flawless French, the attackers forced one of the cartoonists at the weekly Charlie Hebdo - at the office with her young daughter - to open the door.
The staff was in an editorial meeting and the gunmen headed straight for the paper's editor, Stephane Charbonnier - widely known by his pen name Charb - killing him and his police bodyguard, said Christophe Crepin, a police union spokesman on the scene. Minutes later, two men strolled out to a black car waiting below, calmly firing on a police officer, with one gunman shooting him in the head as he writhed on the ground.
Ten journalists were killed and two police, Crepin said, one of them assigned as Charb's bodyguard and another who had arrived on the scene on a mountain bike.
The source said gunmen had hijacked a car and knocked over a pedestrian as he sped away.
The gunmen abandoned their car at the northern Porte de Patin and escaped, Paris police said.
France's top security official confirms 3 gunmen carried out deadly attack.
Armed gunmen face police officers near the offices of the satirical newspaper #CharlieHebdo Photo: Anne Gelbard #AFP pic.twitter.com/k669PHgVw5
— AFP Photo Department (@AFPphoto) January 7, 2015Corinne Rey, the cartoonist who said she was forced to let the gunmen in, said the men spoke fluent French and claimed to be from al-Qaida. In an interview with the newspaper l'Humanite, she said the entire shooting lasted perhaps five minutes.
Both al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have repeatedly threatened to attack France. Just minutes before the attack, Charlie Hebdo had tweeted a satirical cartoon of the Islamic State's leader giving New Year's wishes. Another cartoon, released in this week's issue and entitled "Still No Attacks in France," had a caricature of a jihadi fighter saying "Just wait - we have until the end of January to present our New Year's wishes."
"This is the darkest day of the history of the French press," said Christophe DeLoire of Reporters Without Borders.
Luc Poignant of the SBP police union said the attackers left in a waiting car and later switched to another vehicle that had been stolen.
"They walked calmly in, and up the stairs. 10 dead. It was commando style. A real massacre." via @LCI #CharlieHebdo #FreedomOfSpeech
— Bonnie Greer (@Bonn1eGreer) January 7, 2015France reinforces security at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation.
The satirical magazine gained notoriety in February 2006 when it reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had originally appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, causing fury across the Muslim world.
Its offices were fire-bombed in November 2011 when it published a cartoon of Mohammed and under the title "Charia Hebdo".
Despite being taken to court under anti-racism laws, the magazine continued to publish controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet.
In September 2012 Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film, titled "Innocence of Muslims", which was made in the United States and insulted the prophet.
French schools, consulates and cultural centres in 20 Muslim countries were briefly closed along with embassies for fear of retaliatory attacks.
Editor Stephane Charbonnier has received death threats and lives under police protection.
Read: British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "sickening" attack on the Paris offices.
"The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press," he said in a message on Twitter.
The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) January 7, 2015Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condemned the attack, expressing solidarity with the people of France.
Condemnable & despicable attack in Paris. Our solidarity with people of France. My thoughts are with families of those who lost their lives.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 7, 2015The United States said it condemned Wednesday's deadly shooting attack on a French newspaper in the "strongest possible terms."
"Everybody here at the White House are with the families of those who were killed or injured in this attack," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, speaking on MSNBC.
"Senior officials at the White House have been in close touch with their counterparts in France this morning," he added.
Read: Paris attack France's deadliest in decades
"The United States stand ready to work closely with the French" to help them probe the attack.
US President Barack Obama condemned an attack, calling it a "terrorist attack" and pledging US assistance.
"We are in touch with French officials and I have directed my administration to provide any assistance needed to help bring these terrorists to justice," he said.
"I strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris" —President Obama pic.twitter.com/qr9zeGU04o
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 7, 2015On social media, supporters of militant Islamic groups praised the move. One Twitter user who identified themselves as a Tunisian loyalist of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group called the attack well-deserved revenge against France.
Elsewhere on the Internet, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie was trending as people expressed support for weekly and for journalistic freedom.
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