[ad_1]
At least four people have been stabbed near the former headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.
Two victims are fighting for their lives after the brutal attack with a butcher knife, witnesses said.
Police initially feared that two men had carried out the attack, but now they believe it is only one, who has now been arrested.
Two of the victims have been confirmed as a man and a woman who are employees of Premieres Lignes, a French news and video agency, according to Le Monde.
The couple work on the production team for the company that has released a series of documentaries, previously winning the Pulitzer Prize for their work investigating the Panama Papers.
The attacker was stained with blood on his clothes near the Opera Bastille, and two of the victims are fighting for their lives.
At least four people have been stabbed near the former headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris
Two of the victims are on “very bad track,” said an investigating source, after the attacks on Friday afternoon.
Police initially feared that two men had carried out the attack, but now they believe it is only one, who has now been arrested.
The official said police are still searching the area while they question the arrested suspect.
Two of the victims are on “very bad track,” said an investigating source, after the attacks on Friday afternoon.
He said two people were initially seen fleeing and a suspicious device was also found.
It is unclear what motivated the attack or if he had any ties to Charlie Hebdo, who moved his offices after they were attacked by Islamic extremists in 2015.
Witness Hassani Erwan, 23, told AFP: ‘Around noon, we went to have lunch at a restaurant, but when we were arriving, the owner started shouting’ go, go, there is an attack! ‘
“ We immediately fled and locked ourselves in a store with four other customers. ”
French soldiers rush to the scene after people were injured after a man attacked with a knife
Charlie Hebdo (former offices pictured) now posts from a secret address in Paris, and many staff members have bodyguards
Police said there was ‘extreme concern’ today that those responsible for the stabbings might strike again.
Police said there was “extreme concern” today that those responsible for the stabbings might strike again.
Local schools in Districts 3, 4 and 11 have been closed and people are advised to remain in their offices and homes.
Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France region of Paris, said: ‘Extremely shocked by the murderous attack near the former offices of Charlie Hebdo, in a district of Paris that has already paid a high price for violent terrorism .
“I give my full support to the authorities who are now tracking the perpetrator.”
Charlie Hebdo now posts from a secret address in Paris, and many staff members have bodyguards.
Local schools in Districts 3, 4 and 11 have been closed, and people are encouraged to stay in their offices and homes.
It comes as a trial is taking place in the French capital related to the January 2015 attacks that shocked the world after 12 people were killed.
His main targets were the staff of the satirical magazine that had published a series of cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad.
The main terrorists, all known to the French security services, were shot dead by the police themselves, but 14 defendants are currently on trial and face life in prison for “complicity in terrorism”.
Friday’s attack took place near Charlie Hebdo’s former offices, which were attacked by Paris-born brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi in 2015.
It marked the opening of the criminal trial by republishing cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad.
Critics said the publication had deliberately used blasphemy to incite hatred against Muslims around the world.
The deeply incendiary images sparked unrest across the Muslim world when they were first published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005.
They were then published in full by Charlie Hebdo in 2006, leading to its writers and cartoonists receiving regular death threats.
This led to the atrocities of 2015, when the Kouachis broke into their offices and opened fire.
Police and emergency vehicles appear on the scene after the shooting at Charlie Hebdo’s offices in 2015 that left 12 people dead.
The Kouachi brothers, Cherif (left) and Said (right), entered the Charlie Hebdo facility and carried out the brutal attack five years ago.
Despite this, the latest Charlie Hebdo has the cartoons on its cover, under the title ‘All that for that’.
The landmark trial has seen the defendants face a variety of charges, including obtaining weapons and providing logistical support to the killers.
Three of the accused are being tried in absentia, as they are believed to have gone to fight for the Islamic State in Syria.
A message of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, containing the popular slogan ‘je suis Charlie’ (which means ‘I am Charlie’), is presented in Paris after the 2015 attack.
This judicial sketch shows the fourteen defendants and their lawyers at the opening of the trial of the accomplices of the jihadist killings in 2015.
The Kouachi brothers were killed during a shootout with police at a printing press northwest of Paris two days after the attack on Charlie Hebdo.
On January 8, 2015, Amédy Coulibaly shot dead a police officer, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, in the Parisian suburb of Montrouge.
The next day, he took hostages at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Vincennes, executing store clerk Yohan Cohen and customers Philippe Braham, François-Michel Saada and Yoav Hattab before being killed in a police raid.
