In France, at least 12 people were killed when gunmen opened fire in the office of French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo today. Those killed included editor-in chief and some of the best known cartoonists of the magazine. 20 people were also injured, four of them seriously. The attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car. The source said, gunmen had hijacked a car and knocked over a pedestrian as they sped away. A major police operation is under way in the Paris area to catch the killers.
French President Francois Hollande who called an emergency cabinet meeting to take stock of the situation, said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack of exceptional barbarity. The White House has condemned the deadly attack in the strongest possible terms.
The weekly's latest tweet was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The magazine was fire-bombed in November 2011 a day after it carried a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.