12 Killed & Seven Critically Injured After Gunmen Attack Paris Office Of French Satirical Magazine Charlie Hebdo

Gunmen have attacked the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people and injuring seven in an apparent Islamist attack.

At least two masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car.

The gunmen shouted “we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad”, witnesses say.

The terrorists shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the shooting at Charlie Hebdo while attacking the headquarters of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in the centre of Paris, leaving many employees dead and others injured.

It has now emerged that the entire editorial team, including the newspaper’s most senior journalists, were all inside the office at the time of the attack.

President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack “of exceptional barbarity”.

Four of the magazine’s well-known cartoonists, including its editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier were reported among those killed, as well as at least two police officers.

Charlie Hebdo has a history of causing controversy with cartoons of Islam’s prophet Mohammed.

Speaking to the BBC after its office was firebombed in November 2011, the paper’s editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier (who is said to be among the dead today) said the incident had only confirmed that it was right to take the stance that it did.

He said: “This tells me we are right to publish the magazine, and we are right to continue defying Islamists and make their lives difficult as much as they do ours.

“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.”