They shouted out names... then fired: Minute by minute, how the horror unfolded in Paris magazine newsroom as terrorists slaughtered 12 innocent victims
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2901191/They-shouted-names-fired-Minute-minute-horror-unfolded-magazine-newsroom.html
- Two heavily armed gunmen dressed in black force cartoonist Corrine Ray to let them into the Charlie Hebdo offices
- They burst into magazine's editorial office and shoot dead the editor, his police guard and three other cartoonists
- Four more journalists are killed in magazine office and they shoot two more people at random on their way out
- Witnesses said the pair cried ‘we have avenged the prophet’ and ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is greatest) as they left
Dressed
from head to toe in black, two heavily armed gunmen emerge from their
small black Citroen at 11.20am on a chilly and dry Paris day.
One carries a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and both are armed with Kalashnikovs.
A
third man is in the car. Having abandoned the vehicle in the middle of
the tree-lined street, the pair make their way towards the door of No 6,
Rue Nicolas-Appert.
How the attack
unfolded: This graphic shows the route taken by the gunmen who stormed
the offices of Charlie Hebdo at about 11.25am
‘Is
this Charlie Hebdo?’ they scream at two unassuming maintenance workers.
The men tell them the office of the satirical magazine is two doors
down and the gunmen move on, but not before shooting dead one of the
workers – the first of their 12 victims.
According
to tweets from Yves Cresson, who works for the media production company
Bayoo next door, the two attackers initially walked into his office.
‘Taking advantage of the postwoman, two armed men wearing balaclavas
entered our offices,’ he tweeted. ‘They were looking for Charlie.’
11.25am: Terror of the young mother and her daughter
Florence
Pouvil, a sales assistant who worked opposite the Charlie Hebdo
offices, said: ‘I saw two people with big guns, like Kalashnikovs,
outside our office and then we heard firing. We were very confused.
There were two guys who came out of the building and shot everywhere. We
hid on the floor, we were terrified.
‘They
came from the building opposite with big guns. We feared for our lives
so we hid under our desks so they wouldn’t see us. Both men were dressed
in black from head to toe and their faces were covered so I didn’t see
them.
‘They were wearing military clothes, it wasn’t common clothing, like they were soldiers.’
Threatened: Corinne Rey was forced to give gunmen the magazine's entry code
An
estate agent said that before entering the building, the attackers
approached another man in the street, saying, ‘Tell the media that this
is Al Qaeda in Yemen.’
Arriving
at No 10 – the offices of Charlie Hebdo – the two men approach Corinne
Rey, a cartoonist who is arriving at work with her young daughter,
having just picked her up from kindergarten.
The
gunmen force the terrified woman, also known to her friends as ‘Coco’,
to punch in the four-digit security code allowing them access to the
magazine’s office. Miss Rey was frogmarched upstairs with her daughter.
The pair hid underneath a desk during the subsequent chaos.
Miss Rey said: ‘They said they wanted to go up to the offices, so I tapped in the code.
‘They
shot on Wolinski, Cabu… it lasted five minutes. I took shelter under a
desk. They spoke perfect French. They said they were from Al Qaeda.’
11.35am: It’s like a butcher’s – there are so many dead
Inside the magazine’s modern building, on the second floor, reporters and editors are holding their morning news conference.
One
witness, who was in an office across the corridor, said she heard ‘a
huge boom’. ‘Then someone opened the door to our office and asked where
Charlie Hebdo was. He had a rifle. We backed away,’ she said. Inside the
office, the men call out the names of their targets before shooting
them dead.
Among
those killed were Stephane Charbonnier, 47, the magazine’s editor; his
police bodyguard; renowned cartoonists Georges Wolinski, 80, Bernard
‘Tignous’ Verlhac, 57, and Jean Cabut, along with 68-year-old writer
Bernard Maris.
Laurent
Léger, a Charlie Hebdo writer, managed to sound the alarm and make a
phone call at 11.40am. He told a friend: ‘Call the police. It’s carnage,
a bloodbath. Everyone is dead.’ Then the line went dead.
A
police source said the two ‘calm and determined gunmen’ went directly
up to the editorial room and knew their target. ‘It was Charb they were
targeting. The two attackers looked for him in the room, shouting,
“Where is Charb? Where is Charb?” They killed him then sprayed everyone
else.’ Amid the carnage, one journalist texted a friend to say: ‘I’m
alive. There is death all around me. The jihadists spared me.’
Others
took refuge on the roof, including Benoit Bringer, a journalist whose
office is next door. ‘There were very many people in the building,’ he
said. ‘We evacuated via the roof just next to the office.’
Witnesses said the pair cried ‘we have avenged the prophet’ and ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is greatest) as they left.
Another said: ‘It’s like a butcher’s inside there now. There are so many dead.’
11.50am: Police arrive on bicycles – then a firefight
The
gunmen return to the street – apparently as calmly as they had arrived.
From his position on the roof, Mr Bringer said he saw them emerge from
the office.
‘Three policemen arrived by pushbike,’ he said, ‘but they left naturally as the attackers were armed.’
The gunmen climb back into their Citroen as more police arrive on the scene and a firefight ensues.
The
killers fire at the police car, shooting more than a dozen times. A
police spokesman, Rocco Contente, said the men ‘appeared to have opened
fire on everyone.
‘It was carnage, absolute butchery.’
As
they drive away, the gunmen come across another police car in the
street. They get out and spray the car with bullets as its wounded
driver desperately reverses back up the street.
The reversing police car crashes into a parked car and the wounded officer staggers from his vehicle.
Distressing
video footage shows two of the attackers getting out of the vehicle and
opening fire on the officer from about 20 yards away. He falls to the
floor, his arms out – apparently pleading for mercy.
Among those
killed were Stephane Charbonnier, 47, the magazine’s editor (left) and
cartoonist Bernard ‘Tignous’ Verlhac, 57 (right)
Jean Cabut,
also known as Cabu, (left) and economist and contributor Bernard Maris
(right) were also among the 12 victims killed yesterday
Cartoonist
Philippe Honore (left) was a regular contributor who was killed as well
as Michel Renaud (right) who was guest editing the magazine
They
advance towards him, rifles on their shoulders. One of the gunmen, who
is slightly in front of the other, casually breaks into a jog, and
shoots the wounded policeman in the head at close range before walking
back to the car shouting: ‘We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed, we have
killed Charlie Hebdo.’
One of the gunmen bends down to pick up a shoe before getting in the car, which speeds away.
At
the magazine’s offices, a man emerges crying. ‘They are all dead,’ he
says, desperately pleading with bystanders to call the police. Gérald
Kierzec, 40, a casualty doctor on duty at Hôtel Dieu, was among the
first on the scene.
Georges Wolinksi, pictured with his wife, was one of the cartoonists shot dead
‘I
could see this was a military-style attack,’ he said. ‘There was a
first body lying in the lobby. Then I took the stairs which were covered
in blood.
‘When I got to the second floor, there were bodies lying one on top of another.
‘It was carnage with war wounds. There was blood everywhere.
‘These
were Kalashnikov injuries with huge bullets that create huge trauma in
the victims’ faces and chests. They literally explode. As a civilian
doctor who deals with car accidents and the like, I have never seen
anything like it in my career, so many wounded by gunfire. This was
clearly a terror strike.’
Some
survivors are taken to Hotel Dieu. They were visited by President
Francois Hollande, who left in a car with blacked-out windows. Other
victims were taken to Pitie Salpetriere, the hospital where Princess
Diana died in 1997.
Elsewhere on the street, there was terror.
Fradji Guez said his four-month-old granddaughter Joanne was in the nursery near the Charlie Hebdo offices.
‘The
staff heard the shooting and were so frightened that they hid the
children under the cots,’ he said. ‘They were utterly terrified. It’s
horrific.’
Noon: They steal another car – but spare a dog
Offices
of French media, including Le Monde, the country’s main newspaper, are
put under police protection. The terror alert in France is raised to
high.
Driving away at high speed, the Citroen ran down a pedestrian, who is reported to be in a serious condition.
The
attackers made it as far as the junction of Rue Sadi-Lecointe and Rue
de Meaux, in the 19th Arrondissement, not far from the Place de
Stalingrad, before abandoning the damaged car and hijacking another.
A
witness said: ‘They pulled a man, around 60, out of the car behind, a
grey Renault Clio. The guy said, “Wait, let me have my dog!” They let
him get his dog before they drove off. The police arrived five minutes
later.’
4.30pm: Possible hideout searched by police
Anti-terrorist
police search a possible hideout used by the attackers. The rented flat
is situated in the north-east Paris suburb of Pantin. There were no
arrests.
5pm: Thousands gather to mourn the victims
As night falls, thousands start gathering in central Paris in protest and solidarity against the killings.
At the Place De La Republique, mourners lit candles spelling the word ‘Charlie’.
One
woman said: ‘It’s hard to describe. Wolinski was, well, he was France’s
cartoonist. It is like someone has come to kill Dali, Picasso – all in
one go. They have killed the satire, the “patrimoine”, the heritage.
This is one of Paris’s saddest days.’
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