Police have confirmed that at least 12 people have been killed in a shooting at the Parisian headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, saying that 10 journalists and two policemen are among the dead.
L'Independent reported that witnesses had confirmed the deaths of four celebrated cartoonists, including Stephane Charbonnier, the magazine's publisher, who was known as Charb.
The gunmen fled the scene and a manhunt is now underway to find the shooters with Le Point reporting that the anti-crime brigade are pursuing them 11th district of Paris.
A police spokesman, Rocco Contento told French newspaper Libération that three men had entered the magazine’s offices at around 11.30am local time armed with Kalashnikovs and shotguns. “They opened fire on everyone, it was butchery, a real slaughter,” he said.
Contento later told reporters that the attackers had fled the scene in a getaway car, driving to north-east Paris where they abandoned the vehicle and hijacked a second car.
Videos show a gun battle with police in the streets outside. William Molinié, a journalist for 20minutes tweeting from the scene, posted a picture showing a police car with bullet holes in its windscreen:
Voiture de police cible tirs bvd richard Lenoir #CharlieHebdopic.twitter.com/1CvlyEAYUP
— William Molinié (@WilliamMolinie) January 7, 2015
AFP have reported that the attackers shouted: “We have avenged the prophet.”
A source told French news channel France 2 that the magazine was holding their weekly editorial meeting when the attack took place.
However, Gerard Biard, the editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, was in London at the time of the attack. In an interview with France Inter radio, translated by the Press Association, he said: “I am shocked that people can have attacked a newspaper in France, a secular republic. I don’t understand it. “I don’t understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war.”
He also said that the magazine had not received warning or violent threats: “Not to my knowledge, and I don’t think anyone had received them as individuals, because they would have talked about it. There was no particular tension at the moment.”
French President Francois Hollande made a statement at the scene in which he called the shooting a terrorist attack and an act “of exceptional barbarism”, and said that police are still hunting the perpetrators. He also and also said that four of those wounded are “between life and death”.
The British prime minister David Cameron has tweeted his condemnation of the attack, also labelling them as an act of terror, saying: “The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press.”
The White House has issued a statement condemning the attacks in “strongest possible terms”. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: “Everybody here at the White House are with the families of those who were killed or injured in this attack. Senior officials at the White House have been in close touch with their counterparts in France this morning.”
He added: “The United States stand ready to work closely with the French” to help them investigate the attack.
The city has now been placed on the highest terrorism alert with the Guardian reporting that newspaper offices, stations and museums have been placed under police protection.
Various media has emerged of the gunmen shooting at police and fleeing the scene. Elise Bathet, a journalist at Le Monde tweeted this picture which allegedly show the attackers facing a police car:
Les tireurs de #ChalieHebdo face à une voiture de police. Ils ont fait feu, les policiers ont répliqué puis reculé pic.twitter.com/Ld1sxkRLvW
— Elise Barthet (@EliseBarthet) January 7, 2015
A video taken by Martin Boudout of the Premières Lignes agency allegedly shows perpetrators shooting and shouting "Allahu Akbar", which means “God is [the] greatest”:
A video was posted on Facebook which appeared to show the attackers executing a wounded policeman, although the footage has since been removed.
Charlie Hebdo has attracted threats in the past for its cartoons and caricatures. Its offices were firebombed in November 2011 after it ran a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed on its cover.
This week’s edition, which came out this morning, carried a cartoon of Michel Houellebecq, author of a controversial novel, Submission, about a Muslim leader running France according to conservative Islamic law, on its cover.
The last tweet sent from the Charlie Hebdo account before the shooting depicted ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi:
Meilleurs vœux, au fait. pic.twitter.com/a2JOhqJZJM
— Charlie Hebdo (@Charlie_Hebdo_) January 7, 2015
The cartoon caption reads: “Baghdadi also vows: ‘And especially health!’” with the tweet reading “Best wishes, by the way”
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