Ø Heavily armed gunmen shouting Islamist slogans
stormed the office of a satirical weekly here on Wednesday and shot dead at
least 12 people in the deadliest attack in France in four decades. The police
launched a massive manhunt for the masked attackers who reportedly hijacked a
car and sped off, running over a pedestrian and shooting at officers. The
police said witnesses heard the attackers, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and
rocket launcher, shout “We have avenged the Prophet” and “Allahu Akbar” (God is
greatest). Two police officials were among the dead and four people were
critically injured. Paris was placed under the highest alert status
after the attack on Charlie
Hebdo ,
which has sparked anger in the past among Muslims for publishing cartoons of
Prophet Mohamed. Television footage showed large numbers of police in
the area, bullet-riddled windows and people being carried on stretchers.
The attack took place at a time of heightened fears in France and other
European capitals over fallout from the wars in Iraq and Syria, where hundreds
of European citizens have gone to fight alongside the radical Islamic State
group. President Francois Hollande, who rushed to the scene of the shooting,
described it as a barbaric terrorist attack.
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