Yahoo NewsEleven people were reported dead and four others were critically injured in a shooting at the office of a Paris-based satirical magazine Wednesday, France’s president said, calling the attack a “terrorist operation.”
The shooting at the office of Charlie Hebdo was a “cowardly attack,” said President Hollande, speaking at the shooting scene.
“This is a terrorist operation against an office that has been threatened several times, which is why it was protected,” he said.
Luc Poignant, an official of the SBP police union, said the attackers escaped in two vehicles. A witness, Benoit Bringer, told the iTele network he saw multiple masked men armed with automatic weapons at the newspaper’s office in central Paris.
France raised its alert to the highest level, and reinforced security at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation. Top government officials were holding an emergency meeting.
The cover of this week’s issue of the magazine focuses on a new book by Michel Houellebecq, “Submission,” which depicts France led by an Islamic party that bans women from the workplace.
The magazine’s office was firebombed in 2011 and its website was hacked after its cover featured the prophet Muhammad. Nearly a year later, the publication again published crude Muhammad caricatures, drawing denunciations around the Muslim world.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed sadness following the shooting.
“I’m horrified by the barbaric attacks in France,” he wrote on Twitter.