Eleven people were killed, including one journalist, after gunmen attacked the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, French prosecutors have confirmed.
The attack took place early morning, local time.
The BBC cited witnesses as saying that there was sustained gunfire at the office after attackers opened fire with assault rifles. The satirical weekly magazine is understood to be a controversial publication and has courted outrage in the past with its take on news and current affairs' articles.
Its latest tweet contained a cartoon of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, reports have noted.
An eyewitness, Benoit Bringer, told French TV channel Itele: "Two black hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs. A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building.
Reuters, citing France Info radio, said that police had confirmed 10 dead and five injured until earlier. Various news reports updated the death toll to be 11 hours later. A police official, Luc Poignant said one journalist was dead and several injured including three police officers. "It's carnage," Poignant told BFM TV.
In 2011, when the same magazine carried the image of Prophet Mohammad on its cover, a firebomb ripped through its headquarters.
