French satirical magazine attacked in Paris

At least 12 people, including two police officers, killed when gunmen attack Charlie Hebdo magazine in French capital.

 

At least one journalist was killed, and three police officers were injured during the attack [AFP]

Armed men have attacked a French satirical magazine based in Paris, killing at least 12 people, including two police officers, police officials have said.

Xavier Castaing, head of communications for the Paris police prefecture, confirmed the deaths on Wednesday.

Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly has drawn repeated threats for its caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, among other controversial sketches.
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Paris, said journalists and cartoonists reported several masked men dressed in black entering the building who then began to fire with automatic weapons.
"Some journalists took refuge on the roof," Rowland said.
"Charlie Hebdo has pushed boundaries in the past, and continues to challenge the idea of censorship."

President Francois Hollande, speaking outside the office of the magazine, described the attack as having been carried out by barbaric people.

"This is an attack on free speech." he told reporters. "No one can harm the spirit of this country which is this newspaper".

Rowland said that a terrorism alert has been raised to its highest level in the wake of the attack.
The magazine tweeted a cartoon of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, minutes before the attack. 
Benoit Bringer, a journalist with Agence Premiere Ligne who saw the attack, told the iTele network he saw several masked men armed with machine guns.