Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.
Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.
A major police operation is under way to find three gunmen who fled by car.
President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity".
It is believed to be the deadliest attack in France since 1961, when right-wingers who wanted to keep Algeria French bombed a train, killing 28 people.
The masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car. They later abandoned the car in Rue de Meaux, northern Paris, where they hijacked a second car.
Death threats
Witnesses said they heard the gunmen shouting "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" in Arabic ("Allahu Akbar").
Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, 47, had received death threats in the past and was living under police protection.
French media have named the three other cartoonists killed in the attack as Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski, as well as Charlie Hebdo contributor and French economist Bernard Maris.
The attack took place during the magazine's daily editorial meeting.
At least four people were critically wounded in the attack.
The satirical weekly has courted controversy in the past with its irreverent take on news and current affairs. It was firebombed in November 2011 a day after it carried a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
" Gun attack on French magazine kills 12 VIDEO "
Moment of Shooting on Charlie Hebdo Satirical... by thechacal537 Global condemnation
The latest tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Charlie Hebdo's website, which went offline during the attack, is showing the single image of "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie) on a black banner, referring to a hashtag that is trending on Twitter in solidarity with the victims.
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.
French government officials are holding an emergency meeting, and President Hollande is due to give a televised address later.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the "horrific shooting", offering to provide any assistance needed "to help bring these terrorists to justice".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "It was a horrendous, unjustifiable and cold-blooded crime. It was also a direct assault on a cornerstone of democracy, on the media and on freedom of expression."
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."
The Arab League and Al-Azhar mosque, Egypt's top Islamic institution, have also condemned the attack.
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.
The gunmen targeted the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris in the late morning
France has raised its security alert for Paris to the highest level
Footage shot by an eyewitness outside the magazine's office shows two armed men dressed in black approach a wounded police officer lying on a pavement. One of the men shoots the officer in the head, before both men are seen running back towards a black vehicle and driving away.
Eyewitnesses described seeing two black-hooded men entering the building carrying Kalashnikovs, with reports of up to 50 shots fired.
Large numbers of police and rescue services rushed to the scene
The attackers switched cars after fleeing the scene
Wandrille Lanos, a TV reporter who works across the road, was one of the first people to enter the Charlie Hebdo office after the attack.
"As we progressed into the office, we saw that the number of casualties was very high. There was a lot of people dead on the floor, and there was blood everywhere," he told the BBC.
07.03 Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, has been speaking on French television, and announced that "several" arrests have been made.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-Right Front National, has also been speaking - and told France 2 that "Islamists have declared war on France".
She said: "French people need us to tell it like it is."
06.45 These image of the two suspects still on the run - Said, left, and Cherif Kouachi - have been released by the French police:
AFP
AFP
06.00 Harriet Alexander, one of the Telegraph team in Paris reports:
France is waking up to the news that one of the three men suspected of being involved in the attack has handed himself in, while the other two remain on the run.
France is waking up to the news that one of the three men suspected of being involved in the attack has handed himself in, while the other two remain on the run.
"Hamyd Mourad, 18, was thought to be the getaway driver but at around 11pm last night he went to police in Charleville-Mezieres, northeast of Paris, to say that he was not connected to the attack. BFMTV spoke to someone who claimed that he was at school with Mourad at the time of the attack.
"Said Kourachi, 34, and his 32-year-old brother Cherif - who is well known to police - remain on the run, and television channels this morning are warning people not to approach them and giving out a phone number to contact if they are seen by the public.
04.20 Tributes continue to pour in for the slain journalists and cartoonists. a tearful Phillipe Val, the former Charlie Hebdo, is particularly poignant and moving on France Inter.
“They were so alive, they loved to make people happy, to make them laugh, to give them generous ideas. They were very good people. They were the best among us, as those who make us laugh, who are for liberty ... They were assassinated, it is an insufferable butchery.
"We must be helped to stand up against this horror. Terror must not defeat joie de vivre and the freedom of expression.
"I am all alone, all my friends have gone...our country is not the same.A type of journalism has been exterminated.
"We must continue to laugh, but it is difficult today
03.40 David Chazan is at Charleville-Mézières, north-eastern France, where the youngest suspect surrendered, He reports:
The youngest of the three suspects, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, has surrendered to police here. He reportedly walked into the main police station of this town in north-eastern France and told investigators he was innocent.
Police have issued photos of the two other suspects still at large, Said Kouachi, 34, and his brother Cherif, 32. They are appealing to anyone who sees them to alert police but not to approach them, as they are likely to be armed. Local sources say police reinforcements have been deployed on the border with Belgium, and a manhunt is in progress in the region.
03.00 Plenty of political reaction to the horrific attack in Paris. The remarks of Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican and one time presidential hopeful, on NewsMaxTV are likely to prove controversial.
This is pretty obscene, when it comes to violence, and libertarians are pretty annoyed by anybody who initiates violence
But in the context of things, France has been a target for many, many years, because they’ve been involved in foreign affairs in Libya, and they really prodded us along in — recently in Libya, but they’ve been involved in Algeria, so they’ve had attacks like this, you know, not infrequently. So, it does involve, you know, their foreign policy as well. When people do this, you know, the rejection of the violence has to be made, and with that I agree.”
I put blame on bad policy that we don’t fully understand, and we don’t understand what they’re doing because the people who are objecting to the foreign policy that we pursue, they do it from a different perspective,” Paul added. “They see us as attacking them, and killing innocent people, so yes, they, they have — this doesn’t justify, so don’t put those words in my mouth — it doesn’t justify, but it explains it.
02.25 Police name of the two brothers suspected of carrying out the killings, Cherif Kouachi, 32 and his brother Said, 34, who are still at large and described as "armed and dangerous".
01.25 AFP and French broadcaster, iTele are both reporting that the youngest of the suspects, Hamyd Mourad, 18, has surrendered to the police at Charleville-Mezieres, 53 miles north east of Reims.
01.00 White House says President Barack Obama rang his French counterpart, Francois Hollande from Air Force One to voice his sympathy and support.
The President reiterated his earlier remarks that our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones, and that Americans stand beside the people of France in the aftermath of this outrage. He offered the resources of the United States as France works to identify, apprehend, and bring to justice the perpetrators and anyone who helped plan or enable this terrorist attack.
President Hollande thanked the President for his words of support and provided an update on steps being taken to care for the victims and to arrest those responsible. He affirmed that France will never waver when faced with such adversity and will continue to defend the values of freedom and tolerance that the French republic and its people so nobly embody.
00.30 Francois Hollande, French president announces a day of national mourning.
Nothing can divide us, nothing should separate us. Freedom will always be stronger than barbarity. France has always known how to defeat its enemies when it has known how to defend its values. Let us be united and we shall triumph.
Source :- BBC
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