Masked gunmen opened fire in the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper, on Wednesday.
8:37 P.M. Hunt for Suspects Leads Police to Reims
As we wrap the live blog just after 2:30 a.m. local time Thursday, or 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in New York, the ongoing hunt for the suspects has led the police to the French city of Reims, where the operation is being observed by journalists and residents, according to reports from the scene.
— ROBERT MACKEY
8:23 P.M. Names of the Dead Confirmed by French Media
The French newspapers Le Monde and Le Figaro have published the names of the 12 people killed in Wednesday’s attack on Charlie Hebdo, the satirical weekly.
The gunmen, who shouted that they had “avenged Muhammad” for the mockery of his image took the lives of five leading editorial cartoonists: Stéphane Charbonnier, 47, who was known professionally as Charb; Jean Cabut, 76, who used the pen name Cabu; Georges Wolinski, 80; Philippe Honoré, 73; and Bernard Verlhac, 57, who wrote as Tignous.
Also killed were Bernard Maris, a columnist, Elsa Cayat, a psychoanalyst who wrote regularly for the weekly, and Mustapha Ourrad, identified as a copy editor of Algerian descent by The New Yorker.
A visitor to the magazine, Michel Renaud, also died in the attack, as did Frédéric Boisseau, a 42-year-old maintenance worker in the building.
Two police officers were among the victims. Franck Brinsolaro, a 49-year-old who was assigned to protect Mr. Charbonnier after a previous attack was killed in the office. Ahmed Merabet, 42, was the wounded officer who was seen being executed on a street near the office as the gunmen fled, according to Le Figaro.
François Molins, the Paris prosecutor, announced that eleven more people were wounded, four of them seriously, including the journalist Philippe Lançon and two police officers.
— ROBERT MACKEY
6:52 P.M. French Media Groups Promise to Ensure ‘Charlie Lives’
In a joint statement issued after the attack on Wednesday, the directors of Le Monde and the two state broadcasters Radio France and France Télévisions promised to provide all the material and human resources the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo might need to keep publishing.
The effort was necessary, the three directors said, “to preserve the principles of independence and freedom of thought and expression,” which they called “the guarantors of our democracy.”
— ROBERT MACKEY
6:24 P.M. Suspects Named by French Police
The three men suspected of carrying out Wednesday’s deadly assault on the offices of the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo are Said and Cherif Kouachi, French brothers in their early 30s, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, police officials told The Associated Press.
Cherif Kouachi was arrested in Paris in 2005 as he prepared to go to Iraq to take part in the Islamist insurgency there. When he was convicted three years later — along with a number of young men known as the “19th arrondissement cell” for the working-class Paris neighborhood where most of the suspects grew up — Mr. Kouachi did not go to prison because of time spent in pretrial detention, Bloomberg News reported.
During his trial in 2008, Mr. Kouachi said that he had been driven to take up arms by images of the torture and humiliation of Muslims at the hands American soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Kouachi had wanted to attack Jewish targets in France, but had been dissuaded by a preacher who encouraged him to go to Iraq instead. In court in 2008, Mr. Kouachi, who smoked marijuana when not studying Islam, had insisted that his main interest was hip-hop, not jihad.
As my colleague Elaine Sciolino reported at the time, “prosecutors presented no evidence that any of the young men intended to carry out terrorist attacks against France. Their only training in France was jogging in the wooded Buttes-Chaumont park in their neighborhood and minimal consultation of basic weapons manuals.” According to a contemporary report from Le Monde, the men had learned the rudiments of firing a Kalashnikov, the type of rifle that seems to have been used to kill 12 people on Wednesday.
Copies of documents said to show the faces of the brothers were posted online by De Telegraaf, a Dutch newspaper, and shared on Twitter by Geert Wilders, the anti-Islam politician.
— ROBERT MACKEY
4:58 P.M. Cartoonist Mourned by Daughter on Instagram
Elsa Wolinski, the daughter of one of the cartoonists killed, Georges Wolinski, mourned for her father on Instagram, where she posted a photograph of his desk with a caption that said her father was gone, but not his work.
— ROBERT MACKEY
4:14 P.M. Suspects Have Been Identified, French Media Reports
Citing unnamed police sources, the French daily Le Monde reports that three suspects have been identified.
The newspaper Le Point adds that the police are looking for two brothers, identified only as Saïd and Cherif K., who have been on the radar of the intelligence services, and an 18-year-old accomplice who might have driven the car for the gunmen.
According to Le Point, investigators discovered an ID card for one of the men in the Citroën C3 they abandoned after the attack.
Police sources told Reuters that they are searching for two brothers from the Paris region and a man from the northeastern city of Reims, all French nationals, and that one of the brothers had previously been tried on terrorism charges.
— ROBERT MACKEY
2:46 P.M. Solidarity Rallies in Paris, London and Berlin
There have been rallies in solidarity with the victims of the attack and the satirical magazine in Paris and other cities in France and across Europe, including Berlin and London.
Our colleague Aurélien Breeden spoke to some of the thousands who gathered in the Place de la République in Paris.
Christian Jonon, 58, a Paris town hall employee, was finishing work when he headed to the demonstration. “Freedom of expression is under attack,” he said. “I don’t read it regularly but I appreciate some of the cartoonists who were killed today, some of which I’d been following since I was a child. Their death deeply moves me.”
Laura Cornuault, 24, an intern, and Marie Peigné-Michel, 25, who is unemployed, both said that they only read Charlie Hebdo occasionally but were very respectful of its work.
“We want to show the unity of the French people,” Ms. Cornuault said. “There has been a rise in extremisms lately, and it is very strong to see everybody gathered here, calmly.”
“Something horrible happened, and we want to show that we are not afraid,” Ms. Peigné-Michel said.
“I don’t think this will be the last terrorist attack, but we have to go on living,” Ms. Peigné-Michel added. “Two or three attackers won’t succeed in preventing a whole country from expressing itself.”
— AURELIEN BREEDEN AND ROBERT MACKEY
2:23 P.M. What Is Charlie Hebdo?
In a new article on Charlie Hebdo and the cartoonists who were killed on Wednesday, our colleague Ravi Somaiya explains that the satirical publication — whose name is a mashed-up reference to Charlie Brown and a French word for “weekly” — is a 45-year-old newspaper, “part of a long tradition in France of using satire and insolence,” that “regularly targets politicians, the police, bankers, religion and religious figures — from popes to prophets. This week’s issue included a mock debate about whether Jesus exists.”
Stéphane Charbonnier, the editorial director and cartoonist known professionally as Charb, was among 12 people killed Wednesday when gunmen attacked his newspaper’s offices in Paris. His final cartoon was one mocking the Islamic extremists who have threatened France.
Mr. Charbonnier had been instrumental in a series of defiant campaigns that divided public opinion — some saw them as powerful stands for free speech, and others as needless provocations.
He oversaw the publication of a spoof issue in 2011, advertised as guest edited by the Prophet Muhammad, which led to the paper’s offices being firebombed.
In 2012, Mr. Charbonnier defied the advice of the French government and published crude caricatures of Muhammad, shown naked and in sexual poses. Depictions of the prophet, even if reverent, are forbidden under Islamic law. One of the people killed Wednesday was a police officer assigned to guard the paper’s offices after those episodes.
Two of the magazine’s founding cartoonists, Jean Cabut, who used the pen name Cabu, and Georges Wolinski, were also killed, along with Bernard Verlhac, who used the pen name Tignous.
Another victim, Bernard Maris, recently wrote a cover story about “Submission,” a new novel by Michel Houellebecq that imagines the rapid “Islamization” of France following the election of the country’s first Muslim president in 2022.
— ROBERT MACKEY AND RAVI SOMAIYA
2:14 P.M. Video of Attackers Posted Online by Witnesses
At least three witnesses shared video of shots being fired by the attackers in Paris on Wednesday.
Witness Videos of Paris Terror Attack
Several videos showing the gunmen outside the office of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, have surfaced online. The footage includes scenes of graphic violence.
By Natalia V. Osipova on Publish Date January 7, 2015. Photo by Jordi Mir, via Reuters.One of those clips was posted on Facebook by a witness named Jordi Mir, and later removed from the social network for reasons that remain unclear, but could relate to the fact that the footage showed clear images of a wounded police officer being executed by one of the attackers.
As they ran back to their car, the attackers shouted, “We have avenged Prophet Muhammad. We have killed Charlie Hebdo.”
Mr. Mir also shared a still image of the aftermath of that killing on the Boulevard Richard Lenoir. (That image was also removed from public view later on Wednesday.)
As the journalists Elijah J. Magnier and Hala Jaber pointed out, the video of the officer being killed was quickly repackaged in online propaganda by supporters of Islamic State militants.
— ROBERT MACKEY
1:29 P.M. France Is ‘in Shock,’ Hollande Says
Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, President François Hollande of France said his nation was “in shock” over the deadly attack on the Paris headquarters of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Hollande Reacts to Charlie Hebdo Attack
President François Hollande of France said the shooting at the headquarters of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was “a terrorist attack.”
Publish Date January 7, 2015. Photo by Kenzo Tribouillard/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.— ROBERT MACKEY
12:46 P.M. Obama Calls Attacks ‘Cowardly, Evil’
Speaking from the White House, President Obama condemned the “cowardly, evil attacks” in Paris.
He extended the country’s sympathies to the families of the victims and to the French people as a whole.
“All of us recognize that France is one of our oldest allies, our strongest allies,” he said. “They have been with us at every moment from 9/11 on dealing with some of the terrorist organizations around world that threaten us.”
He called Paris a beautiful city that is “so central to our imaginations,” with ideals of free expression that will endure.
Vowing U.S. support in hunting down the perpetrators, he added “those who carry out senseless attacks against innocent civilians, ultimately they will be forgotten.”
— MIKE MCPHATE
12:23 P.M. ‘No Direct Threat’ to New York, Police Say
New York City’s police department issued a statement saying it was coordinating with one of its detectives stationed in Paris as it monitors the situation there. The police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said no direct threat to New York had been detected.
11:55 A.M. Gatherings Across Europe in Wake of Attack
Since the midafternoon, a crowd has been growing at the Place de la République in the heart of Paris. More than 11,000 people indicated on Facebook that they would attend the gathering.
There were calls on social media to join gatherings in cities across Europe. A blog hosted by the French daily Le Monde carried a map with details of demonstrations around France and abroad. Gatherings were planned in London, Berlin, Montreal and Brussels.
Pictures on Twitter show many of those gathered in Paris holding signs that say “Je suis Charlie,” the slogan that has been widely adopted on social media in solidarity with the victims.
— PALKO KARASZ AND CLAIRE BARTHELEMY
11:54 A.M. Kerry: France Understands Price of Freedom
Speaking to reporters at the State Department, Secretary of State John Kerry said every American stood with the people of France.
He sought to place Wednesday’s attack in a historical context.
“No country knows better than France that freedom has a price, because France gave birth to democracy itself,” Mr. Kerry said. “France sparked so many revolutions of the human spirit born of freedom and of free expression. And that is what the extremists fear the most.”
11:16 A.M. Statement From Salman Rushdie on Attack
The novelist Salman Rushdie released a statement blaming “religious totalitarianism” for the attack and speaking of “a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam.”
Mr. Rushdie, who was forced to spend nearly a decade in hiding after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for his death in 1989, for basing a fictional character on the Prophet Muhammad in his novel “The Satanic Verses,” added:
I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.
— ROBERT MACKEY
The news from Paris swiftly took over the conversation on social media in the Arab world on Wednesday, as users who had been obsessing about a winter storm sweeping the Middle East turned instead to discussing the attack. Many condemned the violence and lamented the anti-Muslim backlash they thought would follow, but some called it a victory or “a blessed invasion.”
A Twitter user who calls himself Abu Obaida al-Libi, borrowing an alias used by militants who have been killed in Libya or Syria, shared a photograph that appeared to show one of the Paris attackers pointing an automatic rifle at a victim, with the hashtag in Arabic, #WeAvengedTheProphet.
In another tweet, the same user hailed “a powerful operation in France” against “a paper known for its abuse of Islam” and said, “The next is worse.”
Many tweets seemed to indicate sympathy for the attack from people who admire the Islamic State extremist group, rather than any knowledge that that group was specifically responsible for the attack. One user seeking to draw a link posted a picture of a man wearing a many-pocketed khaki vest and said, “One of the brothers is wearing the Adnani ammunition vest. You pleased our hearts, one of the attackers is saying ‘God is Great’ (Allahu Akbar) in the middle of Paris.” (Abu Mohammad al-Adnani is an ISIS leader and spokesman who has been photographed in such a vest.)
An account that appeared to support Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also celebrated the attack, saying that those who insult the Prophet Mohammad deserve death: “Being executed was the light punishment. Next comes eternity in the #Hellfire.”
Internet servers in some Arab countries, already slowed by the winter storm, were reduced to barely functioning as large numbers of users rushed to view video images of the attacks that were posted online.
Social media in Arabic, English and French was also flooded with condemnation of the attack from users in or from the Arab world, the region that has faced the most violence from groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State and where some sectors of society fear growing Islamist influence in politics and society.
Randa Slim, a Lebanese political analyst, tweeted in English, “Men dressed in black flee in a black car scene where they murdered innocent human beings while shouting Allah Akbar. What has become of us?” The journalist and filmmaker Habib Battah responded: “Disturbed Individuals are not representative of ‘us,’ whether they are shooting up schools, cinemas or newspapers.”
In Lebanon, Ayman Mhanna, an official with the Samir Kassir Foundation, which advocates free speech and secular liberalism, tweeted in French: “Going further in refusing any form of censorship, the sole response in the face of criminals and fanatics!”
Mustapha Hamoui, a Lebanese blogger, tweeted simply: “The day Marine Le Pen became president … # CharlieHebdo,” suggesting that the reaction to the attack would be a surge in support for the far right, anti-immigrant National Front party led by Ms. Le Pen.
Syrian social media users, both pro- and anti-government, shared messages admonishing the West for having ignored the Islamic State as it slaughtered Syrians, and then confronting it only after it began to kill Westerners.
Meanwhile, accounts that have typically praised jihadists cheered the Paris attack. One whose profile picture is an Islamic State slogan (“It will remain and it will grow”) called the attack “a stunning offensive” by “lone wolves.” Another, Abu al-Baraa al Muwahid, called the attack “the French version” of Salil al-Sawarim, or the Rattling of the Sabers, a propaganda film distributed by the Islamic State, and referred to a police officer killed in the attack as a “locust”; that account was later suspended.
— ANNE BARNARD AND HWAIDA SAAD
10:37 A.M. Security at Paris Airport Is Increased
Philippe Riffaut, the head of the police at Charles de Gaulle Airport, northeast of Paris, said that there was an enhanced police presence at the airport, which has 155,000 to 160,000 passengers a day, but said that there were no plans for additional measures that would disrupt air traffic to and from the French capital.
“All flights are operating normally,” Mr. Riffaut said. “At the moment, we see no justification, based on the nature of the events, to introduce any additional measures that would be constraining for airport passengers.”
Public transportation networks within Paris, as well as long-distance train services to and from the capital, were also operating normally, officials said.
Security on public transportation and in numerous public spaces across France was increased in September amid growing concerns about the threat of terrorism and after a series of kidnappings of French nationals abroad by jihadist groups.
— NICOLA CLARK
10:36 A.M. Live Video From Scene of the Attack
Agence France-Presse is providing a live video stream from the scene of the attack on Charlie Hebdo, as law enforcement works to retrieve evidence from a cordoned-off area.
10:00 A.M. Muslim Leader in France Condemns Attack
Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris, one of France’s largest, expressed horror at the assault on Charlie Hebdo.
“We are horrified by the brutal and ferocious attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices. We are shocked and surprised that something like this could happen in the center of Paris. But where are we?
“We strongly condemn these kind of acts and we expect the authorities to take the most appropriate measures. Our community is stunned by what just happened. It’s a whole section of our democracy that is seriously affected. This is a deafening declaration of war. Times have changed, and we are now entering a new era of confrontation.”
9:43 A.M. Official Identifies Two Victims, A.P. Reports
The 12 dead included Stéphane Charbonnier, the director of the publication, who used the pen name Charb, and Jean Cabut, a cartoonist who used the pen name Cabu, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
In an interview with a French magazine last month, Mr. Cabut was asked whether it was acceptable to draw and laugh about anything.
“Sometimes laughter can hurt, but laughter, humor and mockery are our only weapons,” he said.
— THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:24 A.M. Official Says 3 Gunmen Carried Out Attack, A.P. Reports
9:23 A.M. Images of the Attackers Battling the Police in Paris
Witnesses shared images of a gun battle between two militants and French police officers after the deadly attack on the offices of the satirical weekly in Paris.
Video recorded by the French journalist Martin Boudot from a nearby rooftop as shots were fired — and the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God Is Great” — was posted on Dailymotion by French state television.
France 24 broadcast video recorded by another witness to shooting on another street that appeared to show clear images of the gunmen firing at officers before driving from the scene. The broadcaster chose to edit out the killing of a wounded officer by one militant.
An image of a police car’s shattered windshield after the shooting was shared on Twitter by Julien Rebucci of the website LesInrocks.
Elise Barthet, a journalist for Le Monde, shared a photograph taken by a textile designer whose studio is close to the office of the weekly that appeared to show the attackers blocked on another street by a police car.
— ROBERT MACKEY
9:19 A.M. White House Condemns ‘Horrific Act’
8:54 A.M. ‘I Am Charlie’ Solidarity Message Spreads on Twitter
As our colleague Hannah Olivennes reports, Twitter users have been sharing a message and hashtag that says “Je Suis Charlie,” or “I Am Charlie,” to express solidarity with those killed and wounded in the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday in Paris.
The newspaper’s own Twitter account was updated just before the attack on its offices was reported, with a cartoon wishing “all the best” to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State militants.
— ROBERT MACKEY
8:49 A.M. Attackers Remain at Large
The gunmen in the attack on Charlie Hebdo fled by car.
The police said that their abandoned vehicle was found in the 20th Arrondissement of Paris, in the northeast of the city.
— MAÏA DE LA BAUME AND DAN BILEFSKY
8:44 A.M. Attackers ‘Pleased Our Hearts,’ Twitter Post Says
A Twitter user calling himself Abu al-Baraa al-Tawhidi posted a picture of the alleged attackers, apparently a screen grab from one of the widely circulated videos, with the comment: “One of the brothers is wearing the Adnani ammunition vest. You pleased our hearts, one of the attackers is saying ‘God is Great’ (Allahu Akbar) in the middle of Paris.”
Adnani appears to be a reference to Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, a spokesman for the Islamic State who has been photographed wearing khaki-colored, multipocketed vests.
— ANNE BARNARD AND HWAIDA SAAD
8:20 A.M. An Attack on Freedom of Expression, Merkel Says
In a condolence letter addressed to President François Hollande of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany expressed condolences on behalf of the German people, saying, “In this difficult hour, we stand close at the side of our French friends.”
“This horrible act is not only an attack on the lives of French citizens and the domestic security of France,” Ms. Merkel said. “It also stands as an attack on the freedom of expression and the press, a core element of our free, democratic culture that can in no way be justified.”
— MELISSA EDDY
8:08 A.M. Current Issue of Charlie Hebdo
This week’s issue of Charlie Hebdo features a caricature of Michel Houellebecq, a controversial author who has been at the center of a media firestorm over the publication of his new novel, which depicts an Islamic France in 2022 with a Muslim president.
The novel, “Submission,” has drawn condemnation from some who feel that it amounts to anti-Islamic scare-mongering.
7:53 A.M. France Raises Terror Alert to Highest Level
7:50 A.M. Public Schools Are Closed in Paris
7:48 A.M. A Newspaper With a Penchant for the Provocative
The weekly Charlie Hebdo has long tested limits with its satire. In 2011, an edition titled “Charia Hebdo” was billed as being “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad, who appeared in a cartoon on the cover.