Three masked men kill 12 people after storming the offices of magazine Charlie Hebdo, then flee after a gun battle with police.
A manhunt is under way after 12 people were shot dead at the headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Three masked gunmen stormed the offices of the controversial publication, which has previously been attacked over its portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
They were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and are also thought to have had a rocket-propelled grenade during the attack on Wednesday morning.
The attackers are believed to have called out their victims by name before shooting them. In one video clip, one of them is heard to shout: “We have avenged the prophet.”
A spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor said the editor and a cartoonist for the satirical newspaper, who went by the pen names Charb and Cabu, were among those killed.
Radio France chief executive Mathieu Gilet announced on Twitter that a contributor, Bernard Maris, was another of the victims.
Two police officers were also among the dead, including one assigned as Charb’s bodyguard after death threats were made against him.
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