Charlie Hebdo attack: Multiple fatalities in French newspaper shooting
NINE people have been detained in connection with the deadly attacks amid claims by classmates of the 18-year-old suspect that police got things wrong.
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NINE people have been detained across several regions of France in connection with the deadly terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo, while a third suspect has handed himself into police amid claims he is innocent.
18-year-old Mourad Hamyd surrendered to police yesterday evening after hearing his name linked to the attackers, according to Paris prosecutor spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre. She did not specify his relationship to the Kouachi brothers.
His nationality, and what role, if any, he played in the attack is unclear. However people claiming to be classmates of the teenager have protested his innocence on Twitter, saying he was in school at the time of the attack.
“Please, he was in [school] all morning, he’s in my class,” a school mate tweeted, adding she had only spoken to him about five times and did not feel the need to defend him.
Police say Mr Hamyd is being held without charge while #MouradHamydInnocent is trending online.
Interesting that #MouradHamydInnocent is trending, started by classmates who say suspect Mourad was in class at time of #CharlieHebdo attack
— Darshna Soni (@darshnasoni) January 8, 2015What a shame! Disoriented media labelling a shoolbboy as a homeless terrorist while he was calmly attending his classes #MouradHamydInnocent
— Rose Marie (@rosemarie1570) January 8, 2015J'vous jure Mourad j'ai du lui parler 5 fois maximum mais j'me sentais obligée de l'aider mdr
— vicomte crew (@babydroma) January 8, 2015
DRAMATIC DAY
The surrender came on a dramatic day in Paris where a policewoman was killed and a street sweeper left critically injured in a second shooting in southern Paris that is thought to be unrelated to the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
The female officer was shot in the back after investigating a traffic incident, while the man was shot in the face. The attacker in Thursday’s pre-dawn shooting, who reportedly wore a bullet-proof vest, also remains at large, according to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
In the second shooting, witness Ahmed Sassi said: “There was an officer in front of a white car and a man running away who shot.”
“It didn’t look like a big gun because he held it with one hand.”
France is on its highest level of alert after the deadly attacks at Charlie Hebdo’s central Paris offices with an extra warning for the region north east of Paris where the gunmen are thought to be hiding out.
Paris police have not drawn any connection between the two shootings. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said police had made “several arrests” overnight in their hunt for the Paris-born Kouachi brothers, who reportely used AK-47 machine guns and a rocket launcher in the massacre.
In an interview with RTL radio, Valls said preventing another attack “is our main concern,” explaining the decision to release photos of the pair, along with a plea for witnesses to come forward.
CHARLIE HEBDO TO PUBLISH DESPITE BLOODBATH
Charlie Hebdo will publish as scheduled next week, some of its surviving employees say.
The magazine will be published on Wednesday to defiantly show that “stupidity will not win,” said columnist Patrick Pelloux, who is also an emergency room doctor.
The newspaper’s lawyer, Richard Malka, said one million copies would be printed instead of the normal 60,000 because of the worldwide attention brought by the deadly attack.
Surviving staff of the weekly publication held a meeting on Thursday to discuss its future and how to bring out the issue.
“It’s very hard. We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway because stupidity will not win,” said Pelloux.
The cartoon-reliant newspaper -- with a name inspired by the American comic book character Charlie Brown from the series “Peanuts” (with “Hebdo” being French slang for weekly) -- will next week bring out a special “survivors’” issue of eight pages instead of its usual 16, Malka told AFP.
The leftwing French daily newspaper Liberation will host Charlie Hebdo’s journalists from Friday, because the weekly’s own blood-soaked, bullet-riddled offices are sealed after the attack. France’s Le Monde newspaper and Canal+ television network are also providing assistance.
VICTIM HAS AUSSIE GIRLFRIEND
Meanwhile, the Australian girlfriend of a journalist injured in the attack on Charlie Hebdo has flown to Paris to be by his side.
Masie Dubosarsky, 27, received an email from partner Simon Fieschi at 10.39am Paris time, just minutes before Islamic militants stormed the magazine’s offices.
It is understood Mr Fieschi has been placed in an induced coma after being shot in the shoulder. There are now fears he may not walk again after doctors discovered the injury was worse than initially thought, with the bullet ricocheting off his spine and puncturing a lung.
Ms Dubosarsky is a writer and editor and the daughter of award-winning children’s author Ursula Dubosarsky.
She met 31-year-old Mr Fieschi, 31, through a mutual friend during a working holiday in France about a year and a half ago. He started working as Charlie Hebdo’s social media editor in 2011, not long after its offices were firebombed by extremists in retaliation for a cartoon satirising the prophet Mohammed. He had started work at the magazine shortly after its offices were destroyed by a petrol bomb in November 2011, in retaliation for an issue satirising Islam.
Police named Said Kouachi, 34, Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, as the three gunmen suspected of carrying out the attack.
It is understood French police discovered who the attackers were after finding an identity card in an abandoned getaway car.
La police est à la recherche des frères Saïd et Cherif KOUACHI et Hamyd MOURAD. #CharlieHebdo pic.twitter.com/xh853fOaFn
— Netchys ن (@netchys) January 7, 2015French magazine Le Point is reporting the two brothers had returned to France from Syria last month, and had ties to an Iraqi network in Paris encouraging young men to join militants in Iraq.
Cherif may have served prison time in 2008 for involvement in an Iraqi jihadist group operating out of France.
HOW THE SHOOTING UNFOLDED
Armed with machine guns and a rocket-launcher, two gunmen, claiming to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, stormed the satirical paper’s office about 11.30am on Wednesday (9.30pm AEDT Wednesday) shouting “we have avenged the Prophet” and “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is the greatest) as they fired.
MORE: The victims of Charlie Hebdo terror attack
MORE: Newspaper gunmen ‘on the loose’
MORE: What to know about Charlie Hebdo
The gunmen headed to the second floor editorial department where staff were holding their daily meeting and asked people who they were before shooting.
Terrified staff scattered, with some seeking refuge on the roof as the attack went on for five to 10 minutes before the gunmen managed to escape.
After being called out by name and executed in front of colleagues, ten staff members were gunned down and a police officer was also shot dead before the offenders fled in a getaway car where a third man was waiting.
Driving to Porte de Pantin in northeast Paris where they abandoned the first car and hijacked another, the three gunman emerged from their getaway vehicle to casually injure and then execute a French policeman.
French media have named five of the victims: controversial cartoonist and editor Stephane Charbonnier, known as “Charb”; cartoonists Jean Cabut, Georges Wolinski and Bernard ‘Tignous’ Verlhac; and economist and writer Bernard Maris.
Policeman Ahmed Merabet, a 42-year-old Muslim man has been named as one of the officers killed.
Graphic video shows the officer being killed point-blank on the footpath while begging for his life.
The escape prompted a huge manhunt with 3000 police are scouring the city in search of the terrorists as French President Francois Hollande described the bloodbath as an “undoubtedly terrorist act.”
WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO
MANHUNT: Newspaper gunmen ‘on the loose’
CHARM: ‘I’d rather die standing than live on my knees’
The guy who appears to be the lead shooter also appears to make hand signals, unclear why pic.twitter.com/wlKU71XBGl
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) January 7, 2015One of the bullets used in today's attack in Paris via @yvecresson pic.twitter.com/lxuHgb6abI
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) January 7, 2015
What is Charlie Hebdo?
The satirical newspaper gained notoriety in February 2006 when it reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had originally appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, causing fury across the Muslim world.
Its offices were firebombed in November 2011 when it published a cartoon of Mohammed and under the title Charia Hebdo. No one was injured in that attack.
Despite being taken to court under anti-racism laws, the weekly continued to publish controversial cartoons of the Muslim prophet. In September 2012 Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of a naked Mohammed as violent protests were taking place in several countries over a low-budget film, titled Innocence of Muslims, which was made in the United States and insulted the prophet.
Funny Kim Jong-un pic.twitter.com/W1f9tOEo7m
— Charlie Hebdo (@Charlie_Hebdo_) December 19, 2014
Thousands rally in Paris for victims
Thousands of people joined rallies in Paris and other French cities on Wednesday evening to pay tribute to the victims of the massacre.
At least 10,000 people gathered in the eastern city of Lyon and another 5000 in Paris not far from the site of the attack that killed 12 people, according to police.
French show solidarity with Paris attack victims, spell out #jesuischarlie in lights at Place de la Republique rally. pic.twitter.com/hFJ5aOQz9v
— Griff Witte (@griffwitte) January 7, 2015Crowds chanted “liberate d’expression” and held up pens, as a black armband was placed on Lady Liberty at Place de la Republique.
Originally published as Charlie Hebdo attack: Multiple fatalities in French newspaper shooting
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