Mayor of Paris: I feel a sense of absolute horror - BBC

Magazine editor and 3 cartoonists among dead - BBC

Major police operation underway in Paris - BBC

Bruno Leveillé, who lives near the scene of the attack in Paris's 11th arrondissement , tells AFP he heard "at 11:30am exactly, around 30 gunfire shots over about 10 minutes."

Charlie Hebdo's lawyer says the magazine's editor-in-chief killed in the attack - Al Jazeera English

It was press day at the magazine so all important staff were there. Now 10 assassinated along with 2 police officers - the Guardian

Source: FRANCETVINFO

 

A spokesman for US President Barack Obama has condemned the shooting, saying all of the White House is in solidarity with the families of those killed and injured in the attack - White House

Gunmen believed to be on the loose after attack -CNN

Attackers at Paris newspaper shouted 'we have avenged the prophet'- AFP

12 confirmed dead in Charlie Hebdo attack - Euronews

 

Black-hooded gunmen shot dead at least 11 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a satirical publication firebombed in the past after publishing cartoons lampooning Muslim leaders and the Prophet Mohammad, police said.

President Francois Hollande headed to the scene of the attack and the government said it was raising France's security level to the highest notch.

"This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it," Hollande told reporters.

Another 10 people were injured in the incident and police union official Rocco Contento described the scene inside the offices as "carnage".

"About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs (rifles)," witness Benoit Bringer told the TV station. "A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.

France is already on high alert after calls last year from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described the attack as sickening.

Late last year, a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") injured 13 by ramming a vehicle into a crowd in the eastern city of Dijon. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said at the time France had "never before faced such a high threat linked to terrorism".

A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a publication that has always courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders, in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.

The last tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, which has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

 

A view shows policemen and rescue members at the scene after a shooting at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, January 7, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

French cartoonist Charb, publishing director of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, poses for photographs at their offices in Paris, in this September 19, 2012 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Policemen work at the scene after a shooting at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, January 7, 2015.[Photo/Agencies]

A bullet's impact is seen on a window at the scene after a shooting at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, January 7, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

Newspaper offices, shopping centres, museums and stations have been placed under police protection, according to sources in the French government - the Guardian

Firefighters carry a victim on a stretcher at the scene after a shooting at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, January 7, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]