Hooded gunmen shot dead at least 12 people at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical publication firebombed in the past after publishing images lampooning Muslim leaders, in the worst militant attack on French soil in recent decades.
Another 20 people were injured, including five critically, in the incident. Police union official Rocco Contento described the scene inside the offices as "carnage."
The newspaper's editor and one cartoonist are among the dead, police said. Spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor, Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, confirmed the deaths of the men who went by the pen names Charb and Cabu. A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said two police officers were also among the dead, including one assigned as Charb's bodyguard after prior death threats against him.
Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier, who goes by the pen name Charb, is among the dead. Multiple threats have been made on his life in the past. (Michael Euler/Associated Press)
Luc Poignant, another police union official, said the attackers escaped in a waiting car and later switched to another vehicle that had been stolen and drove into the suburbs of east Paris. France's top security official said a total of 3 gunmen were involved.
French President François Hollande was at the scene of Wednesday's shooting and had ordered top government officials to convene an emergency meeting.
'This is the darkest day of the history of the French press.' - Christophe DeLoire, Reporters Without Borders
"This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it," Hollande told reporters.
Hollande is expected to deliver a national address this evening.
Meanwhile, the office of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that the country has raised its anti-terrorism alert to its highest level following the shooting and reinforced security at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation.
Hollande also said French police have thwarted several other planned attacks "in recent weeks."
News channel iTELE quoted a witness as saying he saw the incident from a building nearby in the heart of the French capital.
Charlie Hebdo's office is located in the 11th arrondisement of Paris. (Google Maps)
"About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs (guns)," Benoit Bringer told the station. "A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.
The attackers went to the second floor and started firing indiscriminately in the newsroom, said Christophe DeLoire of Reporters Without Borders.
"This is the darkest day of the history of the French press," he said.
Other newspapers in Paris, as well as the Danish publication Jyllands-Posten, which triggered protests in 2005 after publishing satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, have increased security in the wake of the attack.
Part of attack captured on video
In a video shot by journalist Martin Boudot from a rooftop near the newpaper's offices, a man can be heard screaming "Allah," followed the sound of three or four shots.
"They're coming out. There are two of them," says a new voice on the video as two men appear in the frame, then raise their arms in a shooting posture.
France last year reinforced its anti-terrorism laws and is already on alert after calls from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on militant strongholds in the Middle East and Africa.
World leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack, but supporters of the militant group ISIS celebrated the slayings as well-deserved revenge against France.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper tweeted earlier that he is "horrified by the barbaric attacks" and offered thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.
Meanwhile, the White House said U.S. security officials were in contact with their French counterparts.
"If the perpetrators are still at large, we're going to track them down, and we're going to work with the French to do that," a White House spokesman told MSNBC television.
Paper targeted in past
A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a publication that has always courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders, in November 2011 after it put an image of Muhammad on its cover.
A year later, the magazine published more Muhammad drawings amid an uproar over an anti-Muslim film. The cartoons depicted Muhammad naked and in demeaning or pornographic poses. As passions raged, the French government defended free speech even as it rebuked Charlie Hebdo for fanning tensions.
The last tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, which has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Another cartoon, released in this week's issue and entitled Still No Attacks in France, had a caricature of an extremist fighter saying "Just wait — we have until the end of January to present our New Year's wishes."
The last major attack in Paris was in the mid-1990s when the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) carried out a spate of attacks, including the bombing of a commuter train in 1995 which killed eight people and injured 150.
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