A huge manhunt is under way in Paris after three masked and hooded gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher stormed the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this morning, killing 12 people – including two policemen – before escaping in a hijacked car, report Kim Willsher and Jon Henley:
A spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, confirmed that 12 people had been killed in the attack. Witnesses and police sources said three men carrying automatic rifles and a rocket-launcher arrived at the building that houses the magazine’s offices, in rue Nicolas Appert in the eastern 11th arrondissement. Cries of “Allahu Akbar” were heard, they said.
“We heard shouting in the street,” Benoît Bringer, who works at a press agency on the same floor as the magazine’s offices, told France Info radio. “We saw hooded men carrying Kalashnikovs entering the building. We called the police. After a few minutes we heard heavy firing – a lot of firing, a hell of a lot. We went upstairs to take shelter on the roof. Then after about 10 minutes we saw two armed men come out onto the street. There was more shouting, more firing.
“Three policemen had arrived on bikes but had to leave because the men were armed, obviously … Then the attackers took off in a car.”
Read more at:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/jan/07/shooting-paris-satirical-magazine-charlie-hebdo