How the Paris Attack on “Charlie Hebdo” Unfolded

Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images(PARIS) — The attack on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo began at 11:28 a.m. local time when a car pulled up to the building that housed its office, French authorities said.

The car, which Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins identified as a Citroen C3, contained at least two assailants who went on to kill 12 people and injure 11 others.

Reports of the number of assailants has varied, with earlier reports stating that their were three and Molins later saying only that there were at least two attackers.

The men were dressed in all black, wore hoods and had AK-47s, Molins said. They have not been identified and reportedly did not identify themselves as members of any specific terrorist or extremist group, authorities said.

The killing began when they asked the doorman where the Charlie Hebdo office is located, and after the doorman answered, an assailant killed him, Molins said.

There was also a police officer who had been ordered to guard the building because the newspaper had been the subject of threats in the past. The officer was killed and photos of the police vehicle riddled with bullets have been released.

The attackers apparently entered the newspaper’s offices when much of the staff was in the middle of an editorial meeting, authorities said. It was there that much of the violence occurred, and while no specific details from inside the office have been released, 10 people were killed there and 11 others were injured, Molins said.

A spokeswoman from the Paris prosecutor’s office earlier said that the paper’s editor and cartoonist, Stephane Charbonnier, was among those killed.

Witnesses from nearby buildings began shooting video of the scene after hearing the first gunshots, and on the audio from the footage the assailants can be heard shouting “Allahu akbar,” an Islamic phrase that means “God is great.”

They then fled the scene in a vehicle that they hijacked nearby, authorities said.

Police later removed a black Citroen from an north of the attack in a Paris neighborhood called Porte de Pantin. The French National Police later confirmed that it was the car used by the assailants.

The manhunt for the assailants is ongoing and the terror alert in Paris has been raised to the highest level.

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