Charlie Hebdo newspaper shooting timeline
At least a dozen are dead, and numerous people were injured
Masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, including the editor and a cartoonist, before escaping in a getaway car.
Here's the timeline (using local Paris time, CET).
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015:
8:28 a.m.: Charlie Hebdo tweets out an illustration of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, mocking the ISIS leader.
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Around 10 a.m.: Journalists from Charlie Hebdo reportedly gather in their Paris office for their weekly editorial meeting. A Charlie Hebdo reporter told the French newspaper Le Monde that the attackers had to have been informed that the editorial meeting was taking place, otherwise there are not many people on the premises.
11:30 a.m: Car arrives in front of the building on Rue Nicolas Appert where Charlie Hebdo's office is located. Two people dressed in black and hooded emerge from the vehicle carrying automatic weapons called Kalashnikovs.
Cartoonist Corine Rey is just returning to the Charlie Hebdo office after picking up her daughter from daycare when two gunmen approach, threaten her and demand she let them in, she tells French newspaper L'Humanité. She says she typed in the code and they entered.
The gunmen ask two people at the reception for the location of the offices of Charlie Hebdo. They immediately start firing and kill one of the people they were talking with, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins says.
The masked gunmen shout "Allahu akbar!" — God is great — as they storm the offices. The attackers head to the second floor and start firing indiscriminately in the newsroom, says Christophe DeLoire of Reporters Without Borders. Rey, who took refuge under her desk, says the attack lasted five minutes.
Shortly after 11:30 a.m.: Gunmen exit the office and get into the car they had left outside the building, Molins says. They drive on to Allee Verte where they confront a police patrol which sparks an exchange of gunfire. They confront another police patrol — an all-terrain vehicle that was patrolling the area. This leads to a second salvo of shots, but no one is wounded in the exchange.
The gunmen then become involved in a third shooting with police on Boulevard Richard Lenoir during which one of the police officers is shot and "basically killed in cold blood," according to Molins.
According to Reuters, a short amateur video broadcast by French television stations shows two hooded men. One of them sees a wounded policeman lying on the ground and strides over to him to shoot him dead at point-blank range.
The gunmen continue north of Paris and their vehicle violently hits a Volkswagen on Rue de Meaux, injuring the driver, Molins says. The attackers try to continue on but have to abandon their getaway car.
They carjack another vehicle, and flee with that car, Molins says.
Police continue to look for the suspects.
With files from Reuters, The Associated Press