A French satirical magazine’s office turned into a horror show Wednesday when attackers burst in and began firing, killing at least 12 before heading off onto the streets of Paris. In addition to the 12 dead, eight people were wounded, including four in critical condition.
While it wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the attack, French officials viewed it as a clear act of terrorism. And there were real fears things could get even worse, with the assailants still on the loose.
“We need to find the actors of this terrorist act,” French President Francois Hollande said. “They must be arrested and brought before judges and condemned as quickly as possible. France is shocked today.”
Heavily armed men entered the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris’ 11th district, close to Place de la Bastille, and opened fire, SPG police union spokesman Luc Poignant told CNN affiliate BFMTV.
A witness who works in the office opposite the magazine’s told BFMTV that he saw two hooded men, dressed in black, enter the building with Kalashnikov submachine guns.
“We then heard them open fire inside, with many shots,” he told the channel. “We were all evacuated to the roof. After several minutes, the men fled, after having continued firing in the middle of the street.”
Witnesses also spoke of seeing a rocket launcher, according to French media reports.
A video taken by a journalist for the Premieres Lignes agency shows the gunmen shouting “God is great!” as they began the attack, Le Monde reported. They also cried “We have avenged the Prophet!”
Four of the newspaper’s best-known cartoonists were killed in the attack, according to a law enforcement source quoted in Le Monde newspaper: Charb, Cabu, Wolinski and Tignous. Charb was also the director of Charlie Hebdo.
Two police officers were also among the dead, the law enforcement source said, according to Le Monde.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
just to fix an error I meant Palestinian people… now to number 8 I understand what you are saying and you are right we should not judge those who had to die for no reason (in our eyes at least) and start making claims… I was not doing that.. what I was saying is that unfortunately this world became so political correct that in order to prove something action has to be taken be it good action or bad action.. and unfortunately yes people, innocent people had to die but maybe they will think a little and realize that these… Read more »
…so called ‘religion’ would feel the need to silence any kind of criticism. I-Slam is actually a forgery of LHE”H the Holy Torah, and because hey know its a fake they feel offended at any joke. These immature characters have no sense of humour, cant take any criticism and are always demanding attention, hey look at me, or else I will shoot and blow things up. Pathetic…. The Torah is Emes and is full of criticism of everybody, and that how we become better people, better Jews and closer to HKB”H. We can take it. Thanks for letting me vent… Read more »
I totally agree with the previous comment.
No one can justify mudrers.
How tragic that you see the murder of innocent people as a just way to get back at a government for doing something wrong.
This was an Islamic terrorist attack but you wouldn’t know it from a surface reading of this article.
Wolinski is a jew
To 3:
WELL SAID!
btw, I wrote #1.
I do not say this gleefully, but only a few days ago France voted to impose a Palestinian state on Israel.
Unfortunately, they now know somewhat what it means to have terrorists living next door…
its only been 2 weeks since Europe signed a agreement against Isreal to support the claims of the Pakistani people that Isreal committed genocide while going to war to protect itself from the rockets they were sending into Isreal….let Europe have a little taste of what Isreal has to deal with….it has been proven time and again when any country openly targets Isreal for any reason something negative comes out on those country”s.
Why bother, probably doesn’t really matter who wins. It’s going to escalate worlwide, and come to a repeat of the X-tian/Muslim wars, they had centuries ago.
If you had the right to vote in France, and elections were being held right now, who would you vote for?
Should I dare vote for Le Pen?