
With blood spilt on sketch papers and stained in footprints on the floor, this is the awful aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

The first photograph of the office shows the utter devastation caused when Islamic fanatics stormed the magazine’s offices as its journalists met to discuss a conference on racism.

In the chaos which followed, the office was turned upside down. This shocking image was published online last night by France’s Le Monde newspaper.

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Shocking: The chilling image from the Charlie Hebdo office shows blood-stained wooden floors, papers strewn across the corridor

Six of the Charlie Hebdo journalists and staff members killed in Wednesday's attack are pictured together in this photo, taken in 2000. Circled top from left is Philippe Honore, Georges Wolinski, Bernard Maris and Jean Cabut. Below them on the stairs, from left, is editor Stephane Charbonnier and cartoonist Bernard ‘Tignous’ Verlhac

Members of the French police special force GIPN carry out searches in Corcy, northern France, as part of an investigation into the attack

Armed: Members of the GIPN and RAID, French police special forces, walk in Corcy, northern France, as they carry out searches as part of an investigation into a deadly attack the day before by armed gunmen on the Paris offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo

Special forces: Members of the GIPN walk in Corcy, northern France, carry out searches as part of the investigation

The picture was taken at the office of Charlie Hebdo at No 10, Rue Nicolas-Appert in the historic Le Marais district of Paris.

The photograph shows chairs overturned by a large puddle of blood, under five cartoons stuck to the wall. Someone’s jacket is still hanging over the back of a chair, beside a discarded mug.

Papers can be seen strewn across the ground, covered in the blood of those who had been working on them hours earlier.

Newspapers and books can also be seen on the floor, while some appear to have been sketched on. In the mayhem, they appear to have been trampled on, with blood-covered shoes staining them red.

And like countless other offices, notes and cards adorn a corridor wall. But here, police tape has also been attached to a door.

One of the cartoons on the wall appears to be the sketch for the controversial ‘Sharia Hebdo’ front page, which sparked the previous terrorist attack in November 2011.

The firebomb – which destroyed the magazine’s computer system but failed to injure anyone – came after the publication ran an issue supposedly guest-edited by Mohammed, containing cartoons of the Muslim prophet and the slogan: ‘100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter’.

After the attack the publication responded in the way it knows best.

Target: After halting their car, the terrorists fire assault rifles at a policeman who tried to stop them, following the massacre at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris

Helpless: The gunmen move in on the officer as Ahmed Merabet - who is believed to have been a Muslim - lies wounded on the pavement

Pleading: Mr Merabet, 42, who was married, raises his hand in an appeal for mercy as the terrorists approach him with their weapons

Callous: One of the terrorists fires at the officer at point-blank range. The attack took place on Wednesday and killed 12 people

Killing: Leaving the 42-year-old married officer to die, they run off, sparking a massive manhunt which was continuing last night

On the front of its next edition, it ran a cartoon of a French illustrator passionately kissing a bearded Muslim, with the headline ‘L’amour plus fort que la haine’ (‘Love is stronger than hate’).

And despite the fact that the attack forced him to live under police guard, editor Stephane Charbonnier, 47, who was murdered on Wednesday, said at the time: ‘I am not afraid of retaliation. I’d rather die standing than live on my knees.’

PHOTOS SHOWING SHOCKING MURDER OF POLICE OFFICER These shocking images were broadcast all over the world on Wednesday. We appreciate they may distress some readers, but believe they must be published so the sheer brutality and horror of what happened may be fully understood. Out of respect for the murdered officer and his family, his face has been obscured. Advertisement

Yesterday, the magazine continued to show its defiance, announcing that it would run a special edition next week – and would massively increase its print run, from 60,000 copies to one million.

Amid speculation that the cover image could be more provocative than ever, former editor Philippe Val declared: ‘We will never stop laughing. We must let people laugh. We must let them ridicule the bastards.’

Yesterday the Charlie Hebdo staff who survived pledged to create next week’s edition in memory of their colleagues and ‘write it with our tears’. The issue will be eight pages, rather than the usual 16.

Other media outlets in France said they would give the journalists all the equipment and resources they need.

The magazine is due to be published on Wednesday, a week after the Al Qaeda terrorists attacked their offices, killing a guest editor, three cartoonists, two columnists, a sub-editor and Mr Charbonnier.

Mr Val, who edited the magazine before Mr Charbonnier and was his mentor, said yesterday: ‘We have laughed so much, we must continue to laugh. It is difficult today but it’s the absolute weapon, laughing.’

He went on to describe the attack as an ‘act of war’, adding: ‘Our country will never be the same.

‘A certain kind of journalism has been wiped out. Those who have been exterminated were all people capable of causing laughter with serious ideas.’

Suspects: The three men were named as Cherif Kouachi (left), 32, his brother Said Kouachi (right), 34, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, of Gennevilliers

A raid by France’s elite anti-terrorist unit took place late Wednesday in Reims as part of the hunt for the gunmen who attacked the newspaper

Either the suspects will be able to escape, or ‘there will be a showdown’, said a member of the unit, urging reporters at the scene to be ‘vigilant'

He went on to say: ‘It’s a terrible grief that falls on us, but we can’t let silence win.

LAST TWEET BEFORE SLAUGHTER Just one hour before the attack, the magazine’s web editor Simon Fieschi tweeted a cartoon mocking Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In the massacre which followed, he was shot – but survived. Yesterday, Mr Fieschi’s girlfriend spoke of his family’s horror but also their overwhelming relief that he was not killed. They now face an agonising wait to discover if he has been paralysed after he called his mother during the attack, saying he had survived but could not feel his body. Mr Fieschi, 31, was subsequently put into an induced coma at a Paris hospital. His Australian fiancee – who was visiting family in Sydney at the time – was last night flying across the world to be at his bedside. Before she boarded the flight, Maisie Dubosarsky, 28, said: ‘I’m scared to see him. He is still in the coma. I was so happy because he wasn’t dead. Now, realising that he might not walk again, it’s terrible. I just wish it wasn’t real.’ Advertisement

‘Terrorism must not get in the way of the joy of living, the freedom of expression. We must say what we feel, we must say what we think.

‘We will never accept this, that we will never stop laughing. Our freedom, we can’t abandon that.’

Paying tribute to his colleagues, he said: ‘Today I am practically all alone, all my friends are gone.

‘And this was not for a bad cause, it was so that we all could live, so that kids were free to come and go, and say silly things, without danger. I’m in very bad shape. But that’s normal, right? I lost all my friends.

‘They were absolutely wonderful people. They cared so much about bringing joy to people, making them laugh. They were people who just wanted to live happily, who wanted to grant humour its place in life. That’s all, it’s just that, and that’s what’s been murdered.’

Columnist Patrick Pelloux said their work had to continue to show ‘stupidity will not win’. He explained that as Charlie Hebdo’s offices were not accessible, they would produce it elsewhere.

‘It’s very hard,’ he said. ‘We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway.

‘They were extraordinary men and women. They were killed during a meeting discussing a conference on the fight against racism. Voila.

‘The magazine will continue. We won’t stop. We have to put together an even better paper, I don’t know how. But we’ll do it. We’ll write it with our tears, but we’ll write it. We don’t have the right to give in.’

Police believe they have tracked down the brothers to a remote area about 50 miles north-east of Paris after reportedly robbing a nearby petrol station.

Officers are said to have found a Molotov cocktail bomb and jihadist flag in the car of Cherif and Said Kouachi, which they abandoned before fleeing.

The men, still armed, headed on foot into the vast Forêt de Retz (Retz Forest) that measures 32,000 acres, an area roughly the size of Paris.

The office picture was released following images showing the moment that a murdered police officer pleaded for his life before being executed.

Faces of the victims: Among the journalists killed were (l to r) Charlie Hebdo's deputy chief editor Bernard Maris and cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut, aka Cabu, Stephane Charbonnier, who is also editor-in-chief, and Bernard Verlhac, also known as Tignous

Emergency: Police officers and firefighters gathered in front of the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris after gunmen stormed the building

Critical: Firefighters carried an injured man on a stretcher in front of the offices of French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo after the shooting

Last night: French forensic experts and police officers examine evidence outside the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's office, in Paris

A police photographer (partially hidden) works with investigators as they examine the impacts from machine gun fire on a police vehicle

A video from the scene of Wednesday's massacre shows officer Ahmed Merabet - believed to be a Muslim - lying wounded on the pavement and begging for mercy before being shot at point-blank range by the terrorists.

As they approach, the 42-year-old is seen raising his hand in appeal for mercy, before asking: ‘Do you want to kill me?’ The gunman then answers: ‘OK chief’ before shooting him through the head with the assault rifle.

The gunmen then return to the car driven by an accomplice, sparking a massive manhunt which was continuing last night.

The shocking images were broadcast all over the world, depicting the sheer brutality of the horror that unfolded in the attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, in which 12 innocent people were killed.

Among the victims, the Al Qaeda assassins – identified as two brothers and an 18-year-old accomplice, all with Algerian links – shot dead two policemen.

The massacre was condemned around the world as an assault on freedom of speech. The magazine, which mocks politicians and religions alike, was firebombed in 2011 after carrying a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed.

Targeted: A picture posted on Twitter reportedly showing bullets in one of the windows of the Charlie Hebdo offices

High alert: French soldiers patrol at the Eiffel Tower after the Charlie Hebdo shooting as the militants are hunted across the city

French soldiers disembark at Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris, as part of a deployment of soldiers to enhance security in Paris last night

'WE SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP THE VALUES WE BELIEVE IN': DAVID CAMERON SAYS FREEDOM WILL BEAT TERRORISTS David Cameron and Angela Merkel were given an extremely rare joint briefing by British intelligence chiefs on the terror threat last night. MI5 chief Andrew Parker and MI6 boss Alex Younger told the two leaders the Paris attacks appeared to be of a ‘professional’ type not seen in Britain in recent years. The two leaders then made a call to Francois Hollande during which Mr Cameron offered the French president use of British spies to help track down the fanatics. In a joint press conference in London, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor said terrorists must never be allowed to stop free speech. Mr Cameron said: ‘We should never give up the values we believe in and defend as part of our democracy and civilisation – believing in a free Press, in freedom of expression, in the right of people to write and say what they believe. ‘These are the things we are defending.’ Advertisement

Nine of its staff were killed in Wednesday's atrocity, including the editor and three cartoonists. It was France’s worst terror attack since 1961.

Opposition MP Jacques Myard said: ‘We are at war, the Western nations – like Britain, France and Germany.’

The hooded, heavily armed gunmen – described by police as operating like a commando unit – told witnesses they were from Al Qaeda and trained in Yemen.

Last night the Paris outrage was being seen as the ‘spectacular’ that Al Qaeda had been threatening since the dramatic rise of Islamic State replaced it as the most feared jihadi organisation.

The suspects were named as Said Kouachi, 34, his brother Cherif, 32, and Hamyd Mourad, 18.

A police operation took place late lat night the north-eastern city of Reims, where Said lived.

Early this morning, a source close to the case said Mourad surrendered to police 'after seeing his name on social media' and was arrested at an undisclosed location.

Vigil: People gathered around candles and pens at the Place de la Republique in Paris in support of the victims after the terrorist attack

Dozens of members of the elite anti-terror unit were surrounding an apartment building.

The Kouachi brothers hailed from the Paris suburb of Pantin, where Cherif still lived.

He was convicted in 2008 and jailed for three years for his association with a group sending jihadist fighters to Iraq.

Hamyd is believed to have been living recently in Charleville-Mezieres, in the French Ardennes. All three men had Algerian origins.

The massacre at the second-floor offices of the magazine in the heart of the French capital appeared well planned with gunmen calling out names of journalists and cartoonists before shooting them.

Police union official Rocco Contento warned: ‘There is a possibility of other attacks and other sites are being secured.’

As soldiers took to the streets of Paris:

President Francois Hollande called the attack one ‘of exceptional barbarity’;

Barack Obama described it as cowardly;

Thousands took to the streets of Paris in support of those killed;

It was feared the death toll would rise with five of the dozen injured on the critical list;

Britain offered help as MI5 and MI6 joined the manhunt;

Home Secretary Theresa May warned the threat to Britain was ‘grave and relentless’;

Border guards were on high alert for the Paris suspects attempting to flee to the UK.

Brandishing Kalashnikovs and a rocket propelled grenade launcher two gunmen burst in to the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in Bastille just hours after it had tweeted a satirical cartoon of Islamic State’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The gunmen appeared to know that an editorial conference of the magazine’s key staff was taking place and chose their targets by name, seemingly selecting them from among colleagues.

Four of France’s most revered cartoonists – Stephane Charbonnier, 47, Georges Wolinski, 80, Bernard ‘Tignous’ Verlhac, 57, and Jean Cabut, 76, died as the gunmen ran amok shouting out ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great) between rounds of automatic gunfire.

People gather in Toulouse last night to show their solidarity for the victims of the attack by gunmen on the offices of the satirical publication

Elsewhere: People gather at the Place Royale in Nantes to show their solidarity for the victims of the attack on the offices of the satirical weekly

Known by his pen name Charb, Mr Charbonnier, edited Charlie Hebdo, and had been the target of death threats. He was included in a 2013 Wanted Dead or Alive for Crimes Against Islam article published by Inspire, the terrorist propaganda magazine published by Al Qaeda.

A police bodyguard assigned to him after the magazine’s offices were attacked in 2011 was among the first to die on Wednesday, at around 11.30am local time. Others killed were named as Michel Renaud, a guest editor, and 73-year-old cartoonist Philippe Honoré.

Minutes earlier, cartoonist Corinne Rey had been forced to let the gunmen into the office block in the 11th arrondissement of Paris after returning from collecting her young daughter from a nursery.

‘I had gone to pick up my daughter at day care, arriving in front of the magazine building, where two masked and armed men brutally threatened us,’ said Miss Rey, who draws under the name Coco. ‘They said they wanted to go up to the offices, so I tapped in the code,’ said Miss Rey, referring to the security system on the interphone.

Miss Rey and her daughter hid under a desk, from where they saw two cartoonists murdered. ‘They shot Wolinski and Cabu,’ she said. ‘It lasted five minutes.’ Miss Rey said the men ‘spoke French perfectly’ and ‘claimed they were ‘Al Qaeda terrorists’.

Calmly leaving behind a scene resembling a war zone with bullet-riddled windows, blood-stained floors and walls and the cries of the dying and wounded, the men ran on to the street outside – their exit and horrific murder that followed captured on a video taken from a nearby rooftop.

Witnesses said they heard the gunmen shouting ‘We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed’, ‘God is Great’ in Arabic and boasting ‘We have killed Charlie Hebdo’. The gunmen made their escape stopping to kill Mr Merabet and then to hijack a car after their vehicle was damaged in a crash.

Appealing for national unity, President Hollande said: ‘We are threatened because we are a country of liberty.’