Holy fucking shit. This is happening right now in Paris. Three gunmen went into the offices of the humor magazine Charlie Hebdo, which ran the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed back in 2008, and whose same offices were firebombed in 2011.
At least 12 people are dead after three hooded gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs attacked the headquarters of a French satirical magazine and opened fire on journalists and police guards.
The three men - who a police union spokesman described as “commandos” – are now on the run after walking into the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris’s 11th arrondissement at about midday on Wednesday and fleeing in a getaway car driven by a fourth.
The death toll includes 10 journalists and two police officers. At least five people are seriously injured.
Rocco Contento, a spokesman for the Unité police union, said “it was a real butchery” in the building. He said 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.
Charlie Hebdo’s offices were firebombed in 2011 after a spoof issue featuring a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover.
Contento said the attackers had got into a getaway car driven by a fourth man on fleeing the building and drove to Port de Pantin in north-east Paris, where they abandoned the first car and hijacked a second – turning the driver out into the road.
The killers are still on the loose.
This is a photo of the gunmen from Le Monde journalist Elise Barthet.
More news stories on the attack:
New York Times
Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Time
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
CNN
Huffington Post
The Telegraph
The Independent
Daily Mail
BBC
CBS News
NBC News
ABC News