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Charlie Hebdo magazine attack: what we know so far Charlie Hebdo attack: what we know so far
(about 13 hours later)
• Two gunmen entered the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and opened fire. Witnesses reported seeing masked men shouting “Allahu Akbar” carrying Kalashnikovs going into the magazine’s offices and then hearing heavy gunfire. Police said three attackers were involved, including one who drove a car to the scene. • Twelve people were killed when two masked gunmen opened fire in the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo at 11.30 on Wednesday morning – nine of them journalists with the paper, a building maintenance worker and two police officers. Laurent Léger, a Charlie Hebdo writer, managed to sound the alarm, calling a friend and telling him: “Call the police. It’s carnage, a bloodbath. Everyone is dead.”
• So far, 12 people have been confirmed dead, including eight journalists and two police officers. Eleven were wounded in the attack, and four remain in grave condition, a French prosecutor said. Video footage showed one of the officers being shot at close range as he lay injured on the street. Police described a scene of “butchery” inside Charlie Hebdo’s offices. • The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said on Thursday morning there had been “several arrests” overnight in the hunt for two suspects in the deadly shooting. No further details are yet available. In an interview with RTL radio on Thursday, Valls said preventing another attack “is our main concern” as he explained why authorities released photos of the two men, along with a plea for witnesses to come forward.
• The attackers are still at large after fleeing the magazine’s offices in a side street off the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir in a car. The attackers exchanged fire with police as they fled. They abandoned the car in the 19th arrondissement, near the Porte de Pantin metro station, where they hijacked another car, ordering the motorist out. • Police have released the names of three suspects, including pictures of two brothers – one with possible links to al-Qaida – who are suspected of being behind the worst terrorist attack carried out in France for half a century. A vast manhunt is under way to find brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, who were described as being in their early 30s and were considered to be armed and dangerous.
• The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said all measures were being taken “to neutralise these three criminals”. A French prosecutor said all security agencies were participating. But authorities took no questions and gave no details of the manhunt. • Police also named 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, who turned himself in at a police station in Charleville-Mézières, a small town in France’s eastern Champagne region, 230km north-east of Paris near the border with Belgium after learning his name was linked to the attacks in the news and social media, said Paris prosecutor’s spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre. She did not specify his relationship to the Kouachi brothers. Friends of the teenager were reported to have said he was in school at the time of the shootings.
• French President François Hollande declared a day of national mourning for Thursday. Flags were to fly at half mast for three days. Top government officials were to meet Thursday morning. Large, spontaneous gatherings materialised in public squares across France Wednesday evening to condemn the attacks and pay tribute to the victims. • A squad of French commandos was reported to have carried out a raid on an apartment in the city of Reims as part of the hunt for two gunmen and an accomplice – who were identified by officers – but it was later reported that the suspects were not in the property. French police continued to appeal for witnesses.
• Four of the Charlie Hebdo journalists killed in the attack have been named. They are the magazine’s editor and cartoonist, Stéphane Charbonnier, known as Charb; and three other cartoonists: Cabu, Georges Wolinski and Bernard Verlhac, known as Tignous. Writer and economist Bernard Maris, who contributed to Charlie Hebdo, was also reportedly killed. • A police source told the Reuters news agency that one of the suspects had been identified by his identity card, which had been left in the getaway car. This is not confirmed.
• Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief, Gérard Biard, escaped the attack because he was in London. He expressed his shock and said the magazine had had no specific threats of violence. “A newspaper is not a weapon of war,” he said. • Chérif Kouachi, who is now 32, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 after being convicted of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters to Iraq’s insurgency. He said at the time he was outraged at the torture of Iraqi inmates at the US prison at Abu Ghraib, near Baghdad.
• The terror alert in Paris was raised to its highest level. Children were evacuated from schools in 11th arrondissement, where the attack occurred. Police were deployed to guard newspaper offices, shopping centres, museums and railway stations. • Witnesses described hearing the attackers shout “Allahu akbar” as well as “We have avenged the prophet.” Two witnesses said the suspects claimed to be from al-Qaida. One of them specified al-Qaida in Yemen, a group also known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
• Hollande said the country was in shock and called for national unity and pledged punishment against the attackers. “Liberty will always be stronger than barbarism,” he said. • Witnesses described the gunmen as seeming calm and professional. They held their weapons in a way which suggested they had some form of military training, although when they arrived at the building they were unsure where to go and what stairwell and floor the offices were on. They forced a female cartoonist to key in the entry code to the building and stormed into at least two other offices sharing the block, demanding to know the whereabouts of Charlie Hebdo. Once in the Charlie Hebdo newsroom they asked for staff members by name, starting with Charb, before opening fire.
• The attackers escaped the magazine’s offices in a side street off the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir in a car and exchanged fire with police as they fled. They abandoned the car in the 19th arrondissement, near the Porte de Pantin metro station, where they hijacked another car, ordering the motorist out. They remain at large.
• France has raised its terror alert system to the maximum and bolstered security with more than 800 extra soldiers to guard media offices, places of worship, transport and other sensitive areas.
• A nationwide minute of silence was planned for noon on Thursday and the French president, François Hollande, declared a day of national mourning. Flags were to fly at half mast for three days.
• The 12 victims of the attack have been identified. They are: Charb – whose real name was Stéphane Charbonnier, 47, artist and publisher of Charlie Hebdo; Cabu – whose real name was Jean Cabut, 76, Charlie Hebdo’s lead cartoonist, who was honoured with the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civil decoration, in 2005; Georges Wolinski – Tunisian-born artist, 80, who had been drawing cartoons since the 1960s, and worked for Hara-Kiri, a satirical magazine considered a forerunner to Charlie Hebdo; Tignous – whose real name was Bernard Verlhac, 57, was a member of a group of artists called Cartoonists for Peace; Bernard Maris – known as “Uncle Bernard”, 68, was an economist and wrote a regular column for Charlie Hebdo; Philippe Honoré, AKA Honoré, 73, a cartoonist who had worked for Charlie Hebdo since 1992 and the artist who drew the last cartoon tweeted by the weekly only moments before the massacre; Michel Renaud – a former journalist and political staffer who founded a cultural festival who was visiting the Charlie Hebdo offices from Clermont-Ferrard; Mustapha Ourrad – a copy editor for Charlie Hebdo of Algerian descent; Elsa Cayat – Charlie Hebdo analyst and columnist; Frederic Boisseau – building maintenance worker; Franck Brinsolaro – 49-year-old police officer appointed to head security for Charb and father of a one-year-old girl; Ahmed Merabet – 42 and a French Muslim police officer and member of the 11th arrondissement brigade.
• Large, spontaneous gatherings materialised in public squares across France on Wednesday evening to condemn the attacks and pay tribute to the victims.
• Charlie Hebdo has been the subject of violent attacks in the past, following its publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Its offices were firebombed in 2011, and recent threats have also been made against it and other media groups. Riot police were deployed to its offices in 2012 after it published more Muhammad cartoons, including images of him naked.• Charlie Hebdo has been the subject of violent attacks in the past, following its publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Its offices were firebombed in 2011, and recent threats have also been made against it and other media groups. Riot police were deployed to its offices in 2012 after it published more Muhammad cartoons, including images of him naked.
• The attack has prompted swift and widespread international condemnation. US President Barack Obama said the attack was “cowardly, evil” and pledged the support of the United States. German chancellor Angela Merkel and British prime minister David Cameron, who were meeting in London, called Hollande to offer the cooperation of their intelligence services. The UN Security Council issued a statement condemning the “barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack.” • Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief, Gérard Biard, escaped the attack because he was in London. He expressed his shock and said the magazine had had no specific threats of violence. “A newspaper is not a weapon of war,” he said.
Note: This post was updated at 2.30pm ET.