At least 12 people were killed in Paris, France at the the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, when gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher opened fire in the paper’s offices.
France President Francois Hollande, who immediately headed to the scene following the shooting, described the incident as a “terrorist attack.”
Hollande said 11 people were killed and another four were in critical condition after the attack, however it’s now being reported that 12 have died, in what the President is calling an “act of exceptional barbarism.”
The news channel France Info quoted a witness as saying that he saw the episode from a nearby building in the heart of the French capital.
“About a half an hour ago, two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs,” the witness, Benoît Bringer, told the station.
“A few minutes later, we heard lots of shots,” he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.
President Hollande called for “national unity” as the government raised its alert level to the highest possible in the greater Paris region.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, first with reaction from abroad, condemned the shooting.
“The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press,” he said via Twitter.
He added: “We stand united with the French people in our opposition to all forms of terrorism & stand squarely for free speech and democracy.”
This is not the first time French newspaper Charlie Hebdo has been attacked. In 2011, its offices were firebombed after publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on its cover promising “100 lashes if you don’t die laughing!”
Tags: france
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