“PARIS — At least two masked gunmen on Wednesday burst into the Paris offices of a satirical newspaper that had drawn threats for lampooning Islam, killing 12 people in a methodical hail of gunfire, fleeing by car as they battled on the street with the police and setting off a wide manhunt for the killers who remained free.
The terrorist attack on the newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, was among the worst in postwar France and set the nation on edge and threatened to deepen distrust of France’s large Muslim population at a time when Islamic radicalism has become a central concern of security officials across Europe.
President François Hollande of France called the attack, carried out with automatic weapons and characterized by an unusual degree of military-style precision, a display of extraordinary “barbarism” that was “without a doubt” an act of terrorism. He declared Thursday a national day of mourning.
He also raised the nationwide terror alert to its highest status, saying several terrorist attacks had been thwarted in recent weeks as security officials here and elsewhere in Europe have grown increasingly wary of the return of young citizens from Syria and Iraq where they went to wage jihad.
The French authorities put some schools on lockdown for the day, and added security at houses of worship, news media offices and transportation centers, and conducted random searches on the Paris Metro.” NYT
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