12 DEAD IN PARIS MASSACRE:
Islamic Gunmen Execute French Police Officer as he Pleads for His Life in Street after Terror Attack on Satirical Newspaper at Centre of Mohammed Cartoon Storm - Masked gunmen storm Paris headquarters with AK-47s shouting 'Allahu akbar!' and 'the Prophet has been avenged'
- Stalked building asking for people's names before killing the editor and cartoonist during weekly editorial meeting
- Horrific footage shows a police officer begging for his life before being shot in the head at point-blank range
- Killers fled in stolen car across eastern Paris after a 'mass shoot-out' with police officers and remain on the loose
- Newspaper was previously firebombed in 2011 for publishing satirical cartoon of Prophet Mohammed
Daily Mail UK, 7 January 2015
Two masked men brandishing Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers burst into the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, opening fire on staff. By midday, there were reports of up to 11 people dead and 10 wounded, five critically, including journalists, administrative staff, and police officers who attended the scene. Pierre de Cossette, a broadcast journalist with Europe1 News, said several men in black cagoules were heard to shout 'the Prophet has been avenged'. Officers were involved in a gunfight with the men, who escaped in a hijacked car (bottom right) and sped away from the 15th arrondissement office, towards east Paris.
Twelve people were killed today when armed gunmen carried out a 'massacre' at the offices of a notoriously anti-Islamic magazine in Paris - including a police officer who was executed as he begged for mercy on the pavement.
Two masked men brandishing Kalashnikovs burst into the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, opening fire on staff.
Police officers were involved in a gunfight with the men, who escaped in a hijacked car, speeding away towards east Paris and remain on the loose.
The attackers stalked the building asking for people by name before executing senior staff.
Three of France's most revered cartoonists - Stephane Charbonnier, who is also the editor, Georges Wolinski and Jean Cabut - were among those killed.
There were unconfirmed reports that a fourth cartoonist called Bernard Verlhac (aka Tignous) had died.
Horrific footage also emerged showing an injured police officer slumped on the pavement outside the building as the two gunmen approach.
In an apparent desperate plea for his life, the officer is seen slowly raising his hand towards one of the attackers, who responds by callously shooting him in the head at point-blank range.
By midday, there were reports of up to 12 people dead and 10 wounded, four critically, including journalists, administrative staff, and police officers who attended the scene.
Pierre de Cossette, a broadcast journalist with Europe1 News, said: 'Several men in black cagoules were heard to shout 'the Prophet has been avenged'.
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Brutal execution: A police officer pleads for mercy on the pavement in Paris before being shot in the head by masked gunmen during an attack on the headquarters of the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, a notoriously anti-Islamic publication
'Massacre': The gunmen are seen brandishing Kalashnikovs as they move in on the injured police officer from their vehicle outside the office
Emergency: Police officers and firefighters gather in front of the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris today after gunmen stormed the building
Critical: Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher in front of the offices of French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo after the shooting
At large: The gunmen are seen near the offices of the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo before fleeing in a car. They remain on the loose
A police official, Luc Poignant, said he was aware of one journalist dead and several injured, including three police officers.
'It's carnage,' Poignant told BFM TV.
Florence Pouvil, a salesperson at Lunas France on Rue Nicolas Appert, opposite Charlie Hebdo offices, told MailOnline:
'I saw two people with big guns, like Kalashnekovs outside our office and then we heard firing. We were very confused.'
'There were two guys who came out of the building and shot everywhere. We hid on the floor, we were terrified.
On red alert: After the first shots rang out, it is thought that three policemen on bicycles were the first to respond to the atrocity
Benoit Bringer, a journalist with Agence Premiere Ligne, told the iTele network he saw several masked men armed with machine guns
Carnage: A police official, Luc Poignant, said he was aware of one journalist dead and several injured, including three police officers
Targeted: A picture posted on Twitter reportedly showing bullets in one of the windows of the Charlie Hebdo offices
Life-threatening: An injured person is evacuated outside the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's office
'They came from the building opposite with big guns. It has a bunch of different companies inside. Some of our co-workers work there so we were frightened for them.
'They weren't just firing inside the Charlie Hebdo offices. They were firing in the street too.
'We feared for our lives so we hid under our desks so they wouldn't see us. Both men were dressed in black from head to toe and their faces were covered so I didn't see them.
'They were wearing military clothes, it wasn't common clothing, like they were soldiers.'
Charlie Hebdo's website lists 'Charb' as its publication director, and 'Cabu' as artistic director.
Mr Charbonnier was included in a 2013 Wanted Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam article published by Inspire, the terrorist propaganda magazine published by Al Qaeda.
Charlie Hebdo's editor-in-chief Gerard Biard escaped the carnage because he was in London. He told France Inter:
'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.'
Mr Biard said he did not believe the attack was linked to the magazine's latest front page, which featured novelist Michel Houellebecq, who has previously sparked controversy with comments about Islam.
And he said the magazine had not received threats of violence:
'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.'
A visibly shocked French President François Hollande, speaking live near the scene of the shooting, said:
'France is today in shock, in front of a terrorist attack.
'This newspaper was threatened several rimes in the past and we need to show we are a united country.
'We have to be firm, and we have to be stand strong with the international community in the coming days and weeks.
'We are at a very difficult moment following several terrorist attacks. We are threated because we are a country of freedom
'We will punish the attackers. We will look for the people responsible.'
Prime Minister David Cameron joined the condemnation of the attack, 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 British Foreign Office immediately updated is advice for travellers heading to Pairs, warning:
'There is a high threat from terrorism.'
It added: 'If you're in Paris or the Ile de France area take extra care and follow advice of French authorities.'
A picture posted on Twitter appearing to show people taking refuge on the roof of the Charlie Hebdo office
Officers were involved in a gunfight with the men, who escaped in a hijacked car and sped away from the 15th arrondissement office, towards east Paris
Location: Officers were involved in a gunfight with the men, who escaped in a hijacked car and sped away from the 15th arrondissement office, towards east Paris.
Charlie Hebdo was previously attacked with a firebomb in 2011;
Luce Lapin and Laurent Leger, who have both worked at Charlie Hebdo, were using Twitter hours before the attack.
'The most recent tweet posted by Lapin praised a cartoonist called Cabu.
It read: 'Cabu, a great man! And honest, he doesn't eat fois gras.'
While Leger's made a political point about taxes. It said:
'Macron [French ministry of economy] wants more billionaires in France, the same that use tricks for not paying ISF [solidarity tax on wealth].'
A source close to the investigation said two men 'armed with a Kalashnikov and a rocket-launcher' stormed the building in central Paris and 'fire was exchanged with security forces.'
There were reports that the gunmen were looking for people by name.
The latest tweet published by the magazine's official Twitter account featured a cartoon of Abu Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State.
After the shooting, hundreds of comments were posted on the Charlie Hebdo Twitter page, with one user, David Rault, writing:
'A sad day for freedom of expression.'
Victim: Three of France's most revered cartoonists - Stephane Charbonnier, Georges Wolinski and Jean Cabut (above) - were among the Charlie Hebdo employees executed by masked gunmen in Paris
'We have to be stand strong with the international community': A visibly shocked French President François Hollande arrives at the scene, where he promised to bring those responsible to justice
The offices of the same magazine were burnt down in a petrol attack in 2015 after running a magazine cover of the Prophet Mohammed as a cartoon character.
At the time, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Stephane Charbonnier, said Islam could not be excluded from freedom of the press. He said:
'If we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism, that is annoying.'
Mr Charbonnier, also known as Charb, said he did not see the attack on the magazine as the work of French Muslims, but of what he called 'idiot extremists'.
The cover showed Mohammed saying:
'100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter'.
This week's Charlie Hebdo also featured the author Houellebecq, whose new novel imagines Muslims tkaing over the French government in 2022.
Inside, there was an editorial, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, and more cartoons - one showing the Prophet with a clown's red nose.
Depiction of the Prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam, but the magazine denied it was trying to be provocative.
A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover.
Quote:
HOW CHARLIE HEBDO HAS BECOME BYWORD FOR ANTI-ISLAMIC SENTIMENT
Magazine Charlie Hebdo has become a byword for offensive statements in France after taking several highly provocative swipes at Islam.
The magazine once named Prophet Mohammed as its guest editor, published cartoons of the holy figure in the nude, and once renamed itself Sharia Hebdo with the cover slogan '100 lashes if you don't die of laughter'.
The controversy began in 2006 when the publication reprinted now-infamous cartoons of Prophet Mohammed by Danish artist Kurt Westergaard.
When the images originally appeared they lead to days of protests across the Middle East and in Western cities. The decision to reprint the images landed the then-editor in court under anti-terror laws, though he was later acquitted.
The Hebdo offices were burned to the ground in 2011 when attackers used Molotov ****tails to start a blaze early in the morning of November 2.
There was nobody in the building at the time, and the target was instead thought to be the magazine's computer system, which was completely destroyed.
Riot police were forced to stand guard outside the building for days following the attack, as the editors took a defiant stance, choosing to reprint the cartoon images multiple times.
In 2012 they again printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as a deliberately provocative gesture while violent protests were taking place across the Middle East.
The following year the magazine's office again had to be surrounded by riot officers after they published a cartoon booklet depicting the Prohpet naked as a baby and being pushed in a wheelchair.
On the final page of the booklet there was a note from the editor, Stephane Charbonnier, saying the images were 'halal' because Muslims had worked on them, and that they were factually accurate as they had been derived from descriptions in the Koran.
The satirical publication, widely seen as France's answer to Private Eye, prides itself on a mixture of tongue-in-cheek reporting and investigative journalism.
Hebdo's current office building has no notices on the door to prevent a repeat of the attacks that have occurred in the past.
In an interview with De Volkskrant in January 2013, Mr Charbonnier revealed he had been placed under constant police protection for four months after one of the cartoon issues was published.
He shrugged off criticism that he was only publishing the images to gain notoriety for Hebdo, and insisted that he was instead defending the right to free speech.
Mr Charbonnier pointed out that the magazine had poked fun at feminism, nuclear energy and homeland security, but the Islam issues always attracted the most publicity.
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