Terror attack on French magazine leaves 12 dead

The terror alert in Paris was raised to its highest level on Wednesday after masked gunman attacked the offices of a satirical magazine in the city killing at least 12 people, and wounding several others.

French President Francoise Hollande, who was quick to arrive on the scene of the massacre, condemned it as “undoubtedly a terrorist attack,” and appealed for unity.

“We need to show that we are a united country,” he told media, including France24, gathered outside the magazine’s headquarters, as he pledged that the attackers would be tracked down and brought to justice, and that the country would react to this “firmly” while maintaining “national unity always.” He also told media that several other terrorist attacks had been thwarted in recent weeks. Details of the attack were still emerging as this publication went to print but French media named the magazine’s editor Stephane Charbonnier among those who had been killed.

The newspaper’s editor in chief, Gerard Biard, however, was in London at the time.

One eyewitness told France Info that they saw hooded men carrying Kalashnikovs entering the building and then heard heavy firing. President Hollande told media that the attackers had escaped and hijacked a car.

Security had been tight around Charlie Hebdo , located in the 11th Arrondisement (not far from the Bastille) following recent threats.

The magazine, known for its satirical take on religions, had its offices destroyed in a petrol bomb in November 2011, after publishing a spoof edition of the magazine “guest edited” by the Prophet Mohammad. It had already courted controversy five years previously after republishing the controversial cartoons, initially published by a Danish newspaper, of the Prophet.

In 2012 it published a series of cartoons of the Prophet, some of which featured nude caricatures of him, leading to protests and the temporary precautionary closing of French embassies and schools. The most recent tweet was a cartoon of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, head of Islamic State, sending him best wishes for the New Year.

Social media was abuzz with details of the attack, which took place in broad daylight — footage of what appeared to be the masked gunman approaching the building circulated on Twitter. Leaders across the world expressed their solidarity with France and pledged to work closely with the country to catch the attackers.

As security forces sought to track down the attackers, focus will turn to the wider impact the attack will have on France and Europe, and in particularly, the situation of the country’s sizable North African Muslim community.

Islamophobia has been on the rise in France and other parts of Europe, as evidenced by the recent several thousand strong march in the German city of Dresden.

France has the largest Muslim community in Western Europe though exact numbers differ because in secular France censuses cannot record citizen’s race or religion.

Estimates vary from between 5 and 10 per cent of its 62 million strong population.