Afternoon summary
Here is what we know so far, as night falls in Paris:
- Two gunmen entered the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and opened fire. Witnesses reported seeing hooded men shouting “Allahu Akbar” and carrying pump-action Kalashnikovs. Police said three attackers were involved, including one who drove a car to the scene.
- Twelve people have been confirmed dead – 10 Charlie Hebdo staff and two police officers. Video footage showed one of the officers being shot at close range as he lay injured on the street. Five others are seriously wounded.
- The attackers are still at large after fleeing the magazine’s offices by car. They abandoned the car in the 19th arrondissement, near the Porte de Pantin metro station, where they hijacked another car, ordering the motorist out.
- The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said all measures were being taken “to neutralise these three criminals”.
- Five of the Charlie Hebdo journalists killed in the attack have been named. They are the magazine’s editor and cartoonist, Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb; Bernard Maris, an economist and writer on the board of Charlie Hebdo; and three more cartoonists: Jean Cabu, Georges Wolinski and Bernard Verlhac, known as Tignous.
- Crowds are gathering in the centre of Paris and elsewhere in support of Charlie Hebdo and those killed and injured, with many carrying signs declaring #JeSuisCharlie.
I’m now handing over this liveblog to my colleague Tom McCarthy, who will continue with updates throughout the rest of the day. Thank you for reading.
The Queen has sent a message to French president François Hollande:
Prince Philip and I send our sincere condolences to the families of those who have been killed and to those who have been injured in the attack in Paris this moming.
We send our thoughts and prayers to all those who have been affected.
Radio France, Le Monde and France Télévisions have put out a statement saying they will offer staff and other support to help the Charlie Hebdo magazine “continue to live”.
They invite all French media to do the same, “to defend the principles of independence, freedom of thought and expression, the guarantors of our democracy”.
Pour que Charlie vive pic.twitter.com/KnB2xd2da5
— Luc Bronner (@lucbronner) January 7, 2015
In an opinion poll earlier this month, 80% of French people said they thought the risk of terrorism was high – a figure higher than immediately after the 9/11 attacks, the 2005 London bombings, and the Boston marathon bombs:
Ifop : @atlantico_fr 80% des Français jugent la menace terroriste élevée en France pic.twitter.com/0BXHI8h2ri
— Ifop (@IfopOpinion) January 5, 2015
Updated
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has called the Charlie Hebdo attack a “direct assault on democracy, media and freedom of expression”. He went on:
We stand with the government and people of France …
This horrific attack is meant to divide. We must not fall into that trap. This is a moment for solidarity …
We must stand against the forces of division and hate.
Updated
Crowds are gathering in Paris in support of Charlie Hebdo and those killed today:
République. #Charlie pic.twitter.com/YQa17UlLZJ
— Stanislas Touchot (@StanTouchot) January 7, 2015
If you’re planning to take part in marches planned across France and elsewhere today, we’d like to hear from you – you can share your photos and videos with GuardianWitness here. You can also share your tributes to the 12 people killed and five seriously injured.
The Charlie Hebdo magazine website, which collapsed earlier today, is now restored. The homepage carries only the #JeSuisCharlie logo.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the shootings as “barbarous”. Speaking at the British Museum, she said:
We strongly condemn these attacks and our thoughts go out to the French people, particularly to those who have lost loved ones in this horrendous attack.
This is an attack against the values we all hold dear, of freedom of the press, freedom in general and the dignity of man.
British prime minister David Cameron called the attack an “appalling terrorist outrage” and said he felt “huge sympathy” for the families of those killed, adding:
We must never allow the values we hold dear, of democracy, of freedom of speech, to be damaged by these terrorists. We must stand against what they have done.
Angela Merkel and I met today. We’re united in our condemnation of the horrifying Paris murders. pic.twitter.com/oSM2us6I8I
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) January 7, 2015
Ian Hislop, editor of British satirical magazine Private Eye, said the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting “paid a very high price for exercising their comic liberty”, Press Association reports.
In a statement, Hislop said:
I am appalled and shocked by this horrific attack – a murderous attack on free speech in the heart of Europe.
I offer my condolences to the families and friends of those killed: the cartoonists, journalists and those who were trying to protect them.
They paid a very high price for exercising their comic liberty. Very little seems funny today.
The victims
The bodies of those killed in the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices are being removed from the building now.
Five of those murdered have so far been named.
They are the magazine’s editor and cartoonist, Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb; Bernard Maris, an economist and writer on the board of Charlie Hebdo; and three more cartoonists: Jean Cabu, Georges Wolinski and Bernard Verlhac, known as Tignous.
Five other staff at the magazine are believed to be among the 12 dead.
Also killed were two police officers. They have not yet been named.
Anne Penketh reports that Bernard Maris was a 68-year-old economist and journalist who wrote the weekly Oncle Bernard (uncle Bernard) column in Charlie Hebdo.
The author of a book on Keynes, Maris graduated in economics in Toulouse where he became a university professor. At the time of his death he was teaching economics at the university of Paris-VIII and was on the board of Charlie Hebdo.
He was also a frequent television debater on economic issues, on which he had a reputation for being anti-globalisation. He was a former scientific adviser to Attac, the international movement working for social, environmental and democratic alternatives in the globalisation process. Earlier in his career Maris was a lecturer in micro-economics at the university of Iowa and at the central bank of Peru.
Updated
The US secretary of state John Kerry has pledged his support to the people of France:
People of Paris and all of France – each and every American stands with you today. Not just in horror or in anger or outrage … but we stand with you in solidarity. Both in confronting extremism and in the cause of the thing they fear so much – freedom.
He went on to say that France, as the birthplace of democracy, had faced huge challenges in the past, and praised the country’s “spirit of freedom and freedom of expression … that is what extremists fear most”.
While the terrorists had weapons, they had a greater weapon still, he said. “Not just a pen but a pen that represents an instrument of freedom, not of fear.”
Eyewitness accounts
Kim Willsher in Paris has been hearing the stories of some of those who witnessed the attack.
One neighbour saw paramedics trying to save the injured police officer on the road outside her office.
It was ghastly, awful. We knew it was serious because they weren’t even trying to take him away to hospital. They were just trying to save him right there in the street.
We are all in shock.
Solveig G Jensen, a reporter with the Jyllands-Posten, the Danish magazine that also published the Muhammad cartoons, said she was not worried for her own security:
I think everyone knows Charlie Hebdo in France … and knows it also published the cartoons. The level of security at our offices in Denmark has been high ever since the cartoons were published.
A worker on the first floor of the building who would only give his name as Mr Chatzikonstanas said the Charlie Hebdo offices were on the second and third floors but he had heard no shots:
We did hear a bizarre noise, but no firing. Then when we went out we saw blood on the stairs. A lot of blood.
The building has been under police protection for some time.
#CharlieHebdo funeral services vans have just arrived at scene. pic.twitter.com/OM4rqrZdnS
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 7, 2015
Alexandra Topping reports on the latest on the search for three attackers who are still at large:
Some 3000 officers are now on the streets of Paris. Police have impounded and are currently carrying out a forensic examination of the black Citroen getaway car, which was found in the nearby 19th district in north-eastern Paris.
Le Monde is reporting that the Paris prosecutor François Molins will hold a press conference at 17.45 Paris time to give an update on the attack and the hunt to find the assailants.
Updated
The flags at the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the French president, are being flown at half-mast:
Mise en berne des drapeaux de l’Elysée #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/xB1iWOQr7J
— Élysée (@Elysee) January 7, 2015
My colleague Jonathan Bucks says several rallies in support of those murdered are expected to take place later today:
Le Figaro reports that about a dozen marches up and down France are expected to take place later today in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo’s journalists. The Sydicat National des Journalistes (National Union of Journalists) will hold a rally this evening in the centre of Paris.
The mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, has called for a rally at 6pm while others are expected in Lyon, Montpellier, Toulouse and many other major towns and cities. Le Monde reports that rallies are also expected at the European parliament in Brussels and London’s Trafalgar Square.
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Author Salman Rushdie – who was threatened with a fatwa for writing The Satanic Verses – has tweeted in solidarity with those killed today:
.#JeSuisCharlie http://t.co/hZ6n83A0P5
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) January 7, 2015
Rushdie’s statement reads:
Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.
I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.
‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion’. Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.
Eyewitness account: ‘They claimed to be al-Qaida’
Corinne Rey, a designer known as Coco, has told L’Humanité that she was forced to let the attackers into the Charlie Hebdo building. She said:
I had gone to pick up my daughter from daycare. Arriving at the door of the newspaper building, two hooded and armed men brutally threatened us.
They wanted to enter, go up. I typed the code. They shot Wolinski, Cabu … it lasted five minutes … I had taken refuge under a desk …
They spoke French perfectly … claiming to be al-Qaida.
Updated
In a display of solidarity, the US embassy in France has changed its Twitter picture to #JeSuisCharlie:
Updated
There are reports in the French press that one of the attackers told an eyewitness to “tell the media that we are from Al-Qaida in the Yemen”.
Guardian correspondent and an expert on al-Qaida, Jason Burke, says this raises the possibility of an operation by an al-Qaida affiliate that has long worried western intelligence services:
It’s clearly very early days yet, but worth pointing out that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen for almost a decade now, is the only official affiliate of the organisation founded by the late Osama bin Laden which has consistently shown an interest in striking the west – and has come close to successfully doing so – for many years.
AQAP has been degraded by US drone strikes but has proved resilient and capable.
However, its previous efforts have mainly relied on the bomb-making skills and ingenuity of a few senior figures, and an armed assault of this nature would be a dramatic new departure.
Updated
With the three suspected attackers still on the loose, Paris remains in a state of high alert.
Séan Clarke is in Paris and says the emergency services are much in evidence:
Thirteen unmarked police cars with dismountable flashing lights just passed me heading south along the Quai Valmy, in the direction of the 11th arrondissement.
Bringing up the rear was a fire engine. Most of the police were wearing balaclavas.
Fifth victim named as Bernard Maris
News agency AFP reports that Bernard Maris, an economist and writer, is among those killed at the Charlie Hebdo offices this morning.
There are images arriving of the car apparently abandoned by the attackers near the Porte de Pantin in Paris, before they reportedly hijacked another vehicle to escape. The car is being examined by officials:
Updated
A huge manhunt is under way in Paris after three masked and hooded gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs stormed the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this morning, killing 12 people – including two policemen – before escaping in a hijacked car, report Kim Willsher and Jon Henley:
A spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, confirmed that 12 people had been killed in the attack. Witnesses and police sources said three men carrying automatic rifles and a rocket-launcher arrived at the building that houses the magazine’s offices, in rue Nicolas Appert in the eastern 11th arrondissement. Cries of “Allahu Akbar” were heard, they said.
“We heard shouting in the street,” Benoît Bringer, who works at a press agency on the same floor as the magazine’s offices, told France Info radio. “We saw hooded men carrying Kalashnikovs entering the building. We called the police. After a few minutes we heard heavy firing – a lot of firing, a hell of a lot. We went upstairs to take shelter on the roof. Then after about 10 minutes we saw two armed men come out onto the street. There was more shouting, more firing.
“Three policemen had arrived on bikes but had to leave because the men were armed, obviously … Then the attackers took off in a car.”
Another, unnamed witness from an office across the corridor said she and her colleagues had heard “a huge boom. The someone opened the door to our office and asked where Charlie Hebdo was. He had a rifle. We backed away. Afterwards he left, we heard gunfire. We went to the windows, there were two men running with guns, speaking in bad French … They were shouting outside, and shooting again. Afterwards I saw someone leaving the building with his hands covered in blood.”
You can read the full report here.
Updated
My colleague Seán Clarke, who is in Paris, sends this photograph – the #JeSuisCharlie movement shifts beyond social media:
Updated
Reuters reports that an internal email from Danish media group JP/Politikens Hus, whose newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad, shows the paper has increased its security level because of the shooting in Paris.
Social media users are expressing solidarity with Charlie Hebdo’s journalists by using the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie, reports my colleague Elena Cresci.
Among the first to tweet using the hashtag was Thierry Puget (@titi1960), who tweeted an image which is now being widely shared by those wanting to express solidarity with the victims of the attack.
#JESUISCHARLIE pic.twitter.com/4fkcjH0yaz
— Thierry Puget (@titi1960) January 7, 2015
About an hour after news of the shooting broke, #JeSuisCharlie began trending on Twitter worldwide:
The pen is mightier than the sword, and the cowards were afraid of it. So don’t stop writing. #JeSuisCharlie #CharlieHebdo
— Shumyla (@shumylaj) January 7, 2015
Some news organisations, such as Bild in Germany, have joined in with their own tweets.https://twitter.com/BILD/status/552829592692854784
According to Twitter analytics tool Topsy, there have been more than 70,000 tweets using the hashtag so far today.
https://twitter.com/laurenzcollins/status/552820603452141569
Some Parisians are also using the slogan to organise a rally tonight in Paris.
Updated
French interior minister: ‘We will catch these three criminals’
The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has been speaking to the press outside the emergency cabinet meeting that is still ongoing:
He said there was now a high-security alert throughout French territory.
All prosecutors have been asked to take all precautions to protect publications, cultural institutions and public places, he added.
All measures were being taken “to neutralise these three criminals who have committed this barbaric act”; all resources have been mobilised, he added, mentioning the gendarmerie and the military.
Cazeneuve said the authorities were moving as fast as possible to find the aggressors and arrest them.
He said the authorities would be coordinating services and broadcasting “necessary information … so the French people will be informed on a continuous basis about the progress of the inquiry”.
Updated
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
In a video containing distressing scenes (though it has been edited by the Guardian), mobile phone footage captures the moment two gunmen shoot and apparently kill a police officer on a Paris street during the attack on magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The attackers are then seen escaping from the scene in a car.
Updated
Reuters reports that the headquarters of RPT media group Prisa in Madrid, owner of El Pais, have been evacuated after a suspicious package was received.
Updated
Four of the Charlie Hebdo journalists believed to have been killed in today’s attack have been named by French media.
They are the magazine’s editor and cartoonist, Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb; and three other cartoonists: Cabu, Georges Wolinski and Bernard Verlhac, known as Tignous. The Guardian is awaiting official confirmation of these names.
De source judiciaire, l’identité des 4 morts de Charlie (Cabu, Charb, Tignous et Wolinski) “résulte de l’identification d’un survivant”
— Soren Seelow (@soren_seelow) January 7, 2015
#CharlieHebdo: Charb, Wolinski, Cabu et Tignous sont morts http://t.co/CdynLOg8r0 #AFP pic.twitter.com/YgiVHEeVQa
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) January 7, 2015
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has made a statement on the attack:
This abominable act is not only an attack on the lives of French citizens and their security.
It is also an attack on freedom of speech and the press, core elements of our free democratic culture. In no way can this be justified.
Updated
Press Association reports that Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief, Gérard Biard, escaped the attack 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.”
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.”
Updated
#CharlieHebdo French Islamic leaders at scene to condemn the attack. “They have hit us all. We are all victims. These people are a minority”
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 7, 2015
Anne Penketh reports from Paris that the magazine’s most recent tweet, as well as its current cover, once again had Islamism in their sights:
The weekly’s latest jibe, published on Twitter moments before the terrorist attack, was a cartoon wishing a Happy New Year ‘and particularly good health’ to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic militant group Islamic State (Isis).
The magazine describes itself on the social network as the ‘irresponsible newspaper’. Its cover this week features the provocative new novel by Michel Houellebecq, Submission, which satirises France under a Muslim president.
Charlie Hebdo’s editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, has received death threats and lives under police protection. He has always insisted that the cartoons depicting the prophet were harmless fun, although he is well aware that Islam does not allow public images of Muhammad, which are believed by Muslims to be sacrilegious.
Charbonnier, an artist and caricaturist, has been Charlie Hebdo editor since 2009.
The headquarters of Charlie Hebdo are located close to the offices of the leftwing daily Libération in eastern Paris. In November 2013, a gunman attacked the newspaper’s offices, critically injuring a photographer.
In September 2012, Charlie Hebdo courted controversy by publishing cartoons of a naked Muhammad. Charbonnier, known as Charb, justified the decision at the time, telling RTL radio:
If you start by asking whether or not you have the right or not to draw Muhammad … then the next question is, can you put Muslims in the paper? And then, can you put human beings in the paper?
In the end, you can’t put anything in, and the handful of extremists who are agitating around the world and in France will have won.
Updated
Michelle Stanistreet, the general secretary of the UK National Union of Journalists, has called the attack “an attempt to assassinate the free press”:
The assassination of journalists at Charlie Hebdo, cynically targeted on press day to maximise casualties, is an attempt to assassinate the free press.
Our hearts go out to the families of the 10 journalists and police officers killed in this despicable raid. The newspaper had already been the subject of attacks by people who want to suppress democracy and freedom of speech. These journalists have now paid with their lives; the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice.
Supporters of free speech and civil liberties must stand together with governments to condemn this act and defend the right of all journalists to do their job without fear of threats, intimidation and brutal murder.
Updated
Families of the victims are being cared for in a building opposite the Charlie Hebdo offices, while police hunt the attackers:
Des familles des victimes son accueillies dans l’immeuble qui fait face à #ChalieHebdo pic.twitter.com/2n6b2vP7yt
— Elise Barthet (@EliseBarthet) January 7, 2015
My colleague Julian Borger sends more on the magazine’s history:
In 2012, Charlie Hebdo magazine published more cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, including images of him naked, and a cover showing him being pushed along in a wheelchair by an Orthodox Jew. The French government had appealed to the editors not to go ahead with publication, and shut down embassies, cultural centres and schools in 20 countries out of fear of reprisals when they went ahead anyway.
Riot police were also deployed to the Charlie Hebdo offices to protect it from direct attacks. The foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, publicly criticised the magazine’s actions asking: ‘Is it really sensible or intelligent to pour fuel on the fire?’
Gérard Biard, the editor-in-chief, rejected the criticism. ‘We’re a newspaper that respects French law,’ he said. ‘Now, if there’s a law that is different in Kabul or Riyadh, we’re not going to bother ourselves with respecting it.’
You can read the full analysis here.
Updated
Via AFP, here is a fuller statement from the White House:
The 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.
“The United States stand ready to work closely with the French” to help them probe the attack.
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU commission, says he is deeply shocked by today’s attack:
Je suis profondément choqué par l’attaque sur #CharlieHebdo. J’exprime notre plus grande solidarité avec la France http://t.co/FhP0AMYzF0
— Jean-Claude Juncker (@JunckerEU) January 7, 2015
This map shows the location of the Charlie Hebdo offices and the Porte de Pantin, the direction in which the attackers fled as they escaped by car.
Updated
Updated
What we know so far
- Three gunmen entered the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this morning and opened fire.
- So far, 12 people have been confirmed dead – 10 Charlie Hebdo staff and two police officers. Five others are seriously wounded.
- The attackers fled the scene and later hijacked a car. They have not been caught.
- The terror alert in Paris have been raised to its highest level.
- French president François Hollande said the country was in shock following what he described as a terrorist attack.
- Charlie Hebdo magazine had been the subject of violent attacks in the past, following its publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Its offices were firebombed in 2011, and recent threats had also been made against it and other media groups.
This liveblog will continue to have updates throughout the day.
Updated
More from the Guardian’s Kim Willsher in Paris:
#Charlie Hebdo. It was press day at the magazine so all important staff were there. Now 10 assassinated along with 2 police officers.
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 7, 2015
A spokesman for US president Barack Obama has condemned the shooting, saying all of the White House is in solidarity with the families of those killed and injured in the attack.
Updated
Unesco director-general Irina Bokova has condemned the attack on Charlie Hebdo:
I am horrified by this shocking attack against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. My heart goes out to the families of the bereaved and to those who have been injured.
This is more than a personal tragedy. It is an attack on the media and freedom of expression. The world community cannot allow extremists to silence the free flow of opinions and ideas.
We must work together to bring the perpetrators to justice and stand together for a free and independent press.
In this video, which appears to be taken from a property near to the attack, gun shots can be heard while the man filming remarks that it is an automatic weapon.
A woman can be seen running down the street and diving for cover between two cars.
The cartoonist Charb is in a critical condition, according to Libération. He was included in al-Qaida’s Wanted list in 2013 for producing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Updated
‘Four attackers’ hijacked a car
Rocco Contento, a spokesman for the Unité police union, has told reporters that three attackers got into a getaway car driven by a fourth man on fleeing the building and drove to Porte de Pantin in north-east Paris, where they abandoned the first car and hijacked a second – turning the driver out into the road.
He also says the Charlie Hebdo offices were guarded and protection increased in recent weeks because of fresh threats against the magazine, but the attackers had entered the building intending to kill.
You can read our latest news story by Kim Willsher, who is on the scene, here.
Updated
My colleague Jon Henley sends this roundup of witness accounts:
France Info radio has been speaking to witnesses, several of whom are journalists working at a press agency in the same building as the Charlie Hebdo offices.
“We heard shouting in the street,” one man, Benoit Bringer, told the station. “We saw hooded men carrying Kalashnikovs enter the building. We called the police. After a few minutes we heard heavy firing, a lot of firing. We went upstairs on to the roof.
“And then after about 10 minutes we saw two armed men come out into the street. Three policemen arrived on bikes but had to leave because the men were armed, obviously … There was a lot more shouting in the street, a lot more gunshots. The attackers took off in a car.”
Updated
A police spokesman says the death toll has risen to 12 – 10 journalists and two policemen – with five seriously injured.
Updated
Alexandra Topping reports that newspaper offices, shopping centres, museums and stations have been placed under police protection, according to sources in the French government.
Nine journalists and two police officers killed
Police spokesman Rocco Contento has confirmed to Liberation that nine members of Charlie Hebdo’s staff were killed in the attack, as well as two police officers.
My colleague Jon Henley has more information on the attackers, who have not been apprehended:
The attackers are still at large, French media is quoting police sources as saying. A Paris police spokesman, Rocco Contento, has confirmed that three attackers entered the magazine’s offices at around 11.30am carrying pump-action shotguns and Kalashnikovs. “They opened fire on everyone, it was butchery, a real slaughter,” Conteno has told the daily Libération.
“Some of the people there took refuge up on the roof. The attackers then emerged, and there was a shootout with police. One policeman has been seriously wounded, he may die. Two others are also wounded. The attackers then fled in the direction of the Porte de Pantin [on the outskirts of Paris] after hijacking a car.”
Updated
Kim Willsher sends this further update from Paris:
Rocco Contento, a spokesman for the Unite police union, said “it was a real butchery” in the building. He said the Charlie Hebdo offices were guarded because of threats against the magazine, but the attackers had entered the building intending to kill.
He said the attackers had stolen a car after fleeing the building and were headed to the Porte de Pantin with police in pursuit.
Witnesses working in the building opposite heard shots as the attack began and saw a police officer “between life and death” lying on the road outside.
Streets were closed off around the building in the aftermath of the shooting and a few hundred metres away on the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir a police car was riddled with bullet holes to its windscreen.
Updated
Alexandra Topping writes:
The journalist Martin Boudot, from the Premières Lignes agency, has posted this video from the roof of a building situated close to the Charlie Hebdo building. We can hear gunshots and voices who cry ‘Allahu akbar’.
In the distance we can see at least two people who appear to be fleeing.
Other newspapers in Paris have been placed under police protection, according to Le Monde.
Updated
Guardian reporter Kim Willsher is at the scene in Paris and sends this update:
Police say it was carnage “a butchery” inside Charlie Hebdo. Can see police car riddled with bullets.
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 7, 2015
Police spokes. “It was a commando with Kalasnikov and pump action …they went in there to kill”.
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 7, 2015
Police say there had been specific threats against Charlie Hebdo and other media recently.
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 7, 2015
— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 7, 2015
You can follow her live updates here on the blog and @kimwillsher1.
President Hollande’s statement
François Hollande has been speaking to the media. He said that 11 people had been killed and four people seriously injured but 40 people had been rescued.
Hollande said that the security level had been increased in Paris and a number of terrorist plots had been foiled in recent weeks.
An emergency meeting will be held at the Élysée Palace in the next hour.
Hollande said France had experienced “an exceptional act of barbarism committed against a newspaper”.
France was facing a “shock”, he added. “We need to show we are a united country,” he said.
France had to be “firm and strong”, he said, adding: “We will fight these threats and we will punish the attackers.”
France had been targeted because it was a country of freedom but no one would be allowed to go against “the spirit of the republic” in this way.
Updated
This tweet, by Le Monde journalist Elise Barthet, appears to show two gunmen pointing their weapons at 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
My colleague Julian Borger sends this on the controversial history of Charlie Hebdo:
Charlie Hebdo has a long record of taking its satire seriously. The weekly magazine’s response to previous efforts at intimidation was to be even more controversial or outrageous, defying the constraints of religious sensitivity or political correctness.
In November 2011, its offices were fire-bombed after it had published a special edition, supposedly guest-edited by the prophet Muhammad and temporarily renamed ‘Charia Hebdo’. The cover was a cartoon of Muhammad threatening the readers with ‘a hundred lashes if you don’t die laughing’.
The petrol bomb attack completely destroyed the Paris offices, the magazine’s website was hacked and the staff were subjected to death threats. But six days later, it published a new front page depicting a male Charlie Hebdo cartoonist passionately kissing a bearded Muslim man in front of the charred aftermath of the bombing. The headline this time was: L’Amour plus fort que la haine (Love is stronger than hate).
Less than a year after that, it published more cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, including images of him naked and a cover showing him being pushed along in a wheelchair by an Orthodox Jew. The French government had appealed to the magazine not to go ahead with publication, and shut down embassies and schools in twenty countries when it went ahead anyway, out of fear of reprisals.
Updated
The British prime minister, David Cameron, has condemned the attack on a French satirical weekly in which 11 people died:
The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press.
Updated
President Hollande is still speaking.
He says nobody can attack freedom. Eleven people were killed today and France will find the people responsible.
I will have more quotes from his statement shortly.
President Hollande: This was a terrorist attack
Hollande is is at the scene.
He says 11 people are dead and four are critically injured; at least 40 were “saved”.
The numbers of victims is likely to rise, he says.
The French cabinet will meet at 2pm Paris time to discuss the attack.
The security level in Paris has been raised. Police are hunting the perpetrators.
France is in a state of shock, he says. He calls today’s shooting a terrorist attack.
Updated
Updated
Paris has raised its terror alert level to the highest setting following the attack.
It is believed that those responsible for the attack – we do not know how many were involved – are still at large, with some reports that they hijacked a car after the mass shooting.
Associated Press files this update:
A French police official says 11 people are dead in a shooting at a satirical weekly newspaper in central Paris.
Xavier Castaing, head of communications for the Paris police prefecture, confirmed the deaths.
French president François Hollande was headed to the scene of Wednesday’s shooting at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that has drawn repeated threats for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, among other controversial sketches.
Updated
The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, has tweeted his condemnation of the attack:
Appalled to hear news of apparent terrorist attack in Paris. My thoughts are with the family and friends of those killed.
— Philip Hammond (@PHammondMP) January 7, 2015
This tweet from Julien Rebucci at the scene purports to show a police car close to the Charlie Hebdo office:
Impacts d un fusil type kalachnikov @Charlie_Hebdo_ pic.twitter.com/0QLG30C8Fl
— Julien Rebucci (@julienrbcc) January 7, 2015
11 people now confirmed dead
Police have told reporters that 11 people are now confirmed dead and five critically wounded.
Charlie Hebdo has been the focus of anger in the past, after it published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
In a December 2012 article about the magazine’s decision to release a special edition illustrated biography of the Muslim prophet, Angelique Chrisafis wrote:
In 2006, Charlie Hebdo republished the Muhammad cartoons that had sparked worldwide protests when they originally ran in Denmark. A Paris court later threw out an attempt by two Muslim organisations to sue for incitement to hatred.
In 2011, a special edition of Charlie Hebdo entitled Sharia Hebdo featured a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad on the cover as “guest-editor”, saying: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter!” Just before it was published, the magazine’s offices were firebombed.
It is not yet clear whether today’s attack is linked to that controversy.
Updated
This tweet was sent from the account of Charlie Hebdo around an hour ago:
Meilleurs vœux, au fait. pic.twitter.com/a2JOhqJZJM
— Charlie Hebdo (@Charlie_Hebdo_) January 7, 2015
President François Hollande will visit the scene of the attack.
10 people killed, authorities confirm
The Paris prosecutor has just confirmed to journalists that 10 people have been killed in the attack on the offices.
One journalist confirmed dead by police union
Associated Press reports a police union official in Paris saying that one journalist is dead and three others injured.
Luc Poignant, an official of the SBP police union, said the attackers escaped in two vehicles.
Reporter and documentary filmaker Martin Boudot has tweeted a picture which he says is of journalists taking refuge on the roof of Charlie Hebdo:
Attaque en cours de deux hommes en cagoule dans les locaux de CharlieHebdo. On est réfugié sur le toit pic.twitter.com/0TqFwIVJoF
— Martin Boudot (@MartinBoudot) January 7, 2015
There are many reports coming in on this story – it is important to state at this point that reports of deaths have not been confirmed.
Reuters are reporting that 10 people have been killed in the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, after masked armed gunmen entered the building. This has not been confirmed.
The Associated Press are reporting casualities, saying one journalist and three policemen have been injured.
Charlie Hebdo is known as a fearless satirical magazine, which has been targeted before and was at the centre of a row after publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Updated
Hooded gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs have attacked the headquarters of one of France’s most celebrated satirical magazines, Charlie Hebdo, on Wednesday.
First reports suggested two men walked into the building in Paris’ 11th arrondissement around midday and began firing.
At least one person was said to have been injured.
In 2008, Charlie Hebdo was criticised for running Danish cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad. The magazine defended the publication in the name of freedom of expression.
Updated
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Charlie Hebdo attack: manhunt after 12 killed at Paris offices – live updates
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