As he spoke she nodded - trying to distract him from her male colleague

He spared her because 'we don't kill women' but told her to read Koran

She was fixed by Kouachi brother's 'soft' eyes, which looked 'troubled'

The Charlie Hebdo journalist spared death for being a woman has told how she stared into the gunman's 'soft, troubled' eyes so he wouldn't spot a male colleague crouched under a desk.

Sigolène Vinson spoke vividly of her ordeal at the hands of the the Kouachi brothers, giving the fullest account yet of the Paris massacre which claimed 12 lives.

The 40-year-old legal affairs commentator was in an editorial meeting, chatting to colleagues as they made coffee, when they heard a 'pop pop' sound she took to be a firecracker last Wednesday.

Horror: Sigolène Vinson (left), who was spared during the slaughter in the offices of Charlie Hebdo (right), has spoken vividly of her survival in the fullest account yet of the Paris massacre which killed 12 people

Mascot: As Charlie Hebdo's 'house' dog, Lila the Cocker Spaniel was in the office when the killings began. Ms Vinson told Le Monde she could remember the pattering of Lila's paws as she moved between the bodies

The noise was Said and Cherif Kouachi's first round of gunfire, which hit the magazine's webmaster Simon Fieschi in the shoulder and left him in a coma.

Dressed like guerillas or special forces, with full face masks and body armour, the brothers burst into the newsroom shouting 'Allahu akbar' and murdered her colleagues one by one.

When one of the brothers came to Ms Vinson, he spared her life because she was a woman.

Amid the horror, she was fixed by his 'soft, black' eyes. And she did her utmost to hold the killer's gaze so he would not assassinate her colleague Jean-Luc, the magazine's layout artist.

'I looked at him,' she told Le Monde. 'He had these big, black eyes, and a very soft gaze. I felt a moment of trouble in him, like he was looking for my name.

'My brain was working fine. I thought quickly. I understood that he had not seen Jean-Luc, who was in his office.

Killers: Cherif (left) and Said Kouachi spared the life of Sigolène Vinson, but told her to read the Koran

Triumphant: One of the brothers was caught on video chanting: 'We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad'

'He said: "Don't be afraid. calm down. I'm not going to kill you. You are a woman. We don't kill women.

'"But think about what you are doing. What you are doing is bad. I am sparing you, and because I am sparing you, you will read the Koran."

'I gave him a sign of the head - to make a connection, to make contact.

'I don't want to break eye contact because Jean-Luc is under the table, and he hasn't seen him, and I've understood that if they don't kill the women, they will kill the men.'

Jean-Luc survived the attack.

The terrorists' claims that they never kill women was simply untrue. While the Kouachi brothers were on the run, a policewoman was shot dead in an attack linked to the pair.

And in the office itself, they killed Elsa Cayat, a 54-year-old Jewish psychoanalyst and author who specialised in issues of gender and sexuality, and wrote a fortnightly column for Charlie Hebdo.

In the wide-ranging interview with Le Monde, Ms Vinson said it felt 'unfair' that the gunman had told her not to be afraid, seconds after pointing his weapon at her head.

And she told how the magazine's mascot, Lila the Cocker Spaniel, pattered her paws between her owners' bodies as the carnage unfolded.

Murdered: The victims in 2000. Circled top (left to right) are Philippe Honore, Georges Wolinski, Bernard Maris and Jean Cabut. Below them are editor Stephane Charbonnier (left) and cartoonist Bernard 'Tignous' Verlhac

The scene was a 'vision of horror', she said. When the gunmen left, the first thing Ms Vinson saw in the newsroom was her colleague Philippe Lancon.

He survived, but he had been shot in the right cheek. The flesh was torn. She told him not to talk, but felt unable to help him or approach him. She was immobilised by shock.

Near him were two colleagues, clearly dead. Ms Vinson called the fire department, and the operator asked how many bodies she could see.

'They're all dead. They're all dead. They're all dead,' she replied.

The brothers had left, killing a Muslim policeman in cold blood as they did, and led police on a two-day manhunt before they were killed in a siege near the city's Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Emotional: Charlie Hebdo's new editor Gerard Biard (left), and journalist Patrick Pelloux (right) yesterday comforting cartoonist Luz (centre), who avoided the attack because he was half an hour late for work

'We are cartoonists and we like drawing little characters, just as we were as children': Charlie Hebdo caricaturist Renald 'Luz' Luzier reacts during a press conference about the newspaper's next edition

As Ms Vinson tended to the victims, the cartoonist Luz arrived late with a cake. It was his birthday.

Because he survived, it fell to him to create a cover for the first edition of the magazine since the shooting.

Due for release today, its 3million copies feature an image of the Prophet Muhammad holding a sign which says 'Je Suis Charlie' and declares: 'All is forgiven'.

Breaking down in tears at a press conference yesterday, he said: 'We are cartoonists and we like drawing little characters, just as we were as children.

'The terrorists, they were kids, they drew just like we did, just like all children do.

'At one point, they lost their sense of humour. At one point, they lost the soul of their child which allowed them to look at the world with a certain distance.'