Four of the victims were cartoonists at the magazine, according to a report in French media. Suspect: Said Kouachi. Sources at the weekly said the dead included co-founder Jean "Cabu" Cabut, editor-in-chief Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier and cartoonist Georges Wolinski. The dead included 10 journalists and two police officers, according to early reports. French police say they have identified three men as suspects.



They are named as brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both French nationals in their early 30s, and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, whose nationality is unclear.

Cherif Kouachi was convicted in 2008 of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Suspect: Cherif Kouachi. During his trial, he told the court he "really believed in the idea" of fighting the US-led coalition in Iraq. He said he was motivated by his outrage at television images of torture of Iraqi inmates at the US prison at Abu Ghraib. Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher from the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris after armed gunmen stormed its offices and opened fire. Credit:AFP

French media reported that two of the alleged suspects were brothers aged 34 and 32, French-Algerians who returned to France from Syria in the past year. The third suspect was said to have been enrolled in a high school in north-eastern France until recently. Gunmen flee the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Credit:Reuters A raid by France's elite anti-terrorist unit was under way in the north-eastern city of Reims as part of the hunt for the gunmen. Hamyd Mourad surrendered to police at 11pm on Wednesday "after seeing his name circulating on social media", sources told AFP.

French President Francois Hollande, centre, flanked by security forces arrives at the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Credit:AP However, Mourad's classmates have reportedly said on social media they were in class with him at the time of the attack. Police have not confirmed these reports. French police officers and forensic experts examine the car used by armed gunmen who stormed the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo Credit:AFP There were numerous reports that a suspect had been killed.

Respected French newspaper Le Monde said that was not true. A policeman stands guard outside the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris in this February 9, 2006 file photo. The magazine has been targeted by Islamists before. Credit:Reuters Point-blank range One of the assailants was captured on video outside the building shouting "Allahu Akbar!" [God is greatest] as shots rang out. Paris on high alert: French soldiers patrol next to the Eiffel Tower after a shooting at a French satirical magazine, in Paris. Credit:AP

Another walked over to a police officer lying wounded on the street and shot him at point-blank range with an assault rifle, before the two calmly climbed into a black car and drove off. A police union official said the assailantsremained at liberty and there were fears of further attacks. The terror target was in a central region of Paris. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the assailants killed a man at the entrance of the building to force entry. They then headed to the second floor and opened fire on an editorial meeting attended by eight journalists, a policeman tasked with protecting the magazine's editorial director and a guest.

The meeting was said to be on an Islam-themed special edition, titled Sharia Hebdo. Police said the gunmen shouted after their attack: "We have killed Charlie Hebdo. We have avenged the prophet." The gunmen fled eastwards by car towards the Paris suburbs. There they hit another car and were forced to abandon their vehicle in a residential area, Mr Molins said. They then hijacked another car before disappearing. Mr Molins declined to give any details about the hunt for the killers. The blocks surrounding the Charlie Hebdo offices are still cordoned off by police. Forensic investigators in white "clean" suits were going in and out of the building.

However some local residents on their way home from work were being let through the cordon, suggesting police believe there is no continuing danger at the site of the attack. Terrorist attack captured on video A video taken from a rooftop released on social media appears to show two gunmen wearing balaclavas and carrying automatic rifles in the street in front of the magazine offices. One of the gunmen runs up and executes a wounded police officer at point-blank range. The video shows the gunmen hopping in a small black hatch-back car. One casually picks up a shoe left on the ground, then they drive off.

20minutes.fr reported an eyewitness heard the men shout: "You say to the media that it was al-Qaeda in Yemen." "There is a possibility of other attacks and other sites are being secured," Police Union official Rocco Contento said. The gunmen are heard speaking French without an accent, according to reports. Tourist attractions, some public transport and nearby shopping centres were under lockdown and police guard in Paris after the attack, as police pursued the attackers.

Mr Contento described the scene inside the offices as "carnage". President vows to hunt killers French President Francois Hollande declared there would be a national day of mourning on Thursday. "Today the French Republic as a whole was the target," he said. He added it was a barbaric terrorist attack and vowed that the killers would be found and punished.

The President visited the scene of the shooting within hours and called for national unity in the face of what he called a terrorist attack. "An act of indescribable barbarity has just been committed today in Paris," he said. "Measures have been taken to find those responsible, they will be hunted for as long as it takes to catch them and bring them to justice. "We are threatened because we are a country of liberty," he said. "We will punish the aggressors."

Other terrorist attacks had been foiled in recent weeks in France, he revealed. The country is now at the highest state of terrorist alert. Witnesses told French public radio they saw two people in black balaclavas outside the magazine offices. One man was holding a rifle.

Magazine's history of controversy Three years ago, Charlie Hebdo's offices were firebombed, shortly after it published a special edition whose cover featured a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. Despite the destruction of its offices and subsequent death threats to its staff, the magazine published a new edition, saying: "Love is stronger than hate." The last tweet on its account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the militant Islamic State, which has taken control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria and has called for "lone wolf" attacks on French soil. The news channel French TV channel iTELE quoted a witness as saying he saw the incident from a building nearby.

"About a half an hour ago, two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs [automatic rifles]," Benoit Bringer told the station. "A few minutes later, we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing from the building. 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 Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa. Muslim reaction "I am extremely angry. These are criminals, barbarians. They have sold their soul to hell. This is not freedom. This is not Islam and I hope the French will come out united at the end of this," said Hassen Chalghoumi, imam of the Drancy mosque in Paris' Seine-Saint-Denis northern suburb.