Paris, France 12 people killed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine

Video from Paris, France shows shots fired at Charlie Hebdo Satirical Magazine Office. At Least 12 People Killed


Screengrab of footage appears to show a police officer getting shot at close range, before two masked men dressed in black get into a car.


"France 24's Clair Murphy reported from the scene"

Story by Yahoo News and France24
Written/Reported by Chris Parsons and Clair Murphy
NY Daily News Link to article - "Charlie Hebdo has long history of poking fun at Religion and Politics": http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/charlie-hebdo-long-history-provocative-religious-satire-article-1.2068634

Twelve people have died in an attack at the offices of a French satirical weekly "Charlie Hebdo Magazine", which angered some Muslims after publishing crude caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammed. Five more are critically injured. Unconfirmed reports state the nine of the dead are Journalists, and two are Policemen.

The gunmen were armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher, according to sources close to the investigation. The government raised its alert level to the highest possible in the greater Paris region.

French media are reporting that cartoonist “Charb”, whose real name is Stephane Charbonnier, chief editor of Charlie Hebdo, is among those killed in the attack.


Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher in front of the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris (AFP)

French President Francois Hollande statement: "We are looking for the perpetrators of this crime. France is today in shock, in front of a terrorist attack. This newspaper (Charlie Hebdo) was threatened several times in the past. We need to show that we are a united country. We have to be firm, we have to be strong. We are at a very difficult moment. Several terrorist attacks have been impeded during the previous weeks. We are threatened because we are a country of freedom. We fight threats and we will punish the attackers."
_______________________

Story below by UK's Telegraph
Written by Oliver Duggan
_______________________

Satirical French magazine Charlie Habdo, which has come under an attack that reportedly killed 12 people, was targeted three years ago during controversy over cartoons about Islamic prophet Mohammed

The offices of French weekly, which were attacked on Wednesday morning, were destroyed by a petrol bomb in November 2011, a day after it named the Prophet Mohammed as its “editor-in-chief” for the week’s issue.

The magazine, which had a long-established record of Islam-based jokes, had announced the publication would be renamed “Sharia Hebdo” for their latest edition.

But they had already provoked criticism and security warnings as early as 2006, when the editor published Mohammed cartoons by a Danish artist that lamented fundamentalist violence.

Six months later, in February 2007, several Muslim groups took Charlie Hebdo to court for publicly "insulting" Islam.

Philippe Val, the magazine's director and editor-in-chief, described the trial as a "witch hunt." Francois Hollande, then Socialist party secretary and current President of France, testified in favour of freedom of expression.

The magazine was ultimately cleared of "racial insults" for publishing the Danish cartoons and a court ruling upheld Philippe Val's right to satire Islamic extremism.

___________________________
Story below by BBC
___________________________

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.

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

A major police operation is under way in the Paris area to catch the killers.

The satirical weekly has courted controversy in the past with its irreverent take on news and current affairs. It was fire-bombed in November 2011 a day after it carried a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

The latest tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

People had been "murdered in a cowardly manner", President Hollande told reporters at the scene. "We are threatened because we are a country of liberty," he added, appealing for national unity.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a tweet: "The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press."

Analysis: Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris

Charlie Hebdo is part of a venerable tradition in French journalism going back to the scandal sheets that denounced Marie-Antoinette in the run-up to the French Revolution.

The tradition combines left-wing radicalism with a provocative scurrility that often borders on the obscene. Its decision to mock the Prophet Muhammad in 2011 was entirely consistent with its historic raison d'etre.

The paper has never sold in enormous numbers - and for 10 years from 1981, it ceased publication for lack of resources.

But with its garish front-page cartoons and incendiary headlines, it is an unmissable staple of newspaper kiosks and railway station booksellers.



"Google map location of Paris shooting"

'Black-hooded men'

Two of those killed are police officers, France's AFP news agency reports, and several of the wounded are in a critical condition.

An eyewitness, Benoit Bringer, told French TV channel Itele: "Two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs. A few minutes later we heard lots of shots."

The men were then seen fleeing the building.

Gilles Boulanger, who works in the same building as the office, told the same channel: "A neighbour called to warn me that there were armed men in the building and that we had to shut all the doors.

"And several minutes later, there were several shots heard in the building from automatic weapons firing in all directions. So then we looked out of the window and saw the shooting was on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, with the police. It was really upsetting. You'd think it was a war zone."

After the attack, police warned French media outlets to be on alert and pay attention to security.

The country was already on the alert for Islamist attacks after several incidents just before Christmas.

Cars were driven at shoppers in two cities, Dijon and Nantes, and police were attacked by a man wielding a knife in Tours.

While the French government denied the attacks were linked, it announced plans to further raise security in public spaces, including the deployment of around 300 soldiers.