Thousands of people gathered across Europe tonight to show their support to an anti-Islamist newspaper, after its offices in Paris were targeted today by suspected Al Qaeda militants who massacred 12 people. Among those slaughtered was a police officer as he begged for mercy. Masked attackers brandishing Kalashnikovs burst into the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, opening fire on staff after seeking out journalists by name in France's deadliest post-war terrorist attack. Clad all in black with hoods and speaking flawless French, the militants forced one of the cartoonists - who was at the office with her young daughter - to open the door. Pictured: A huge crowd gathers at the Place Royale in Nantes, France (main image), following the dramatic attack earlier (inset).
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Demonstration: Protesters at the Place de la Republique in Paris tonight, following an attack by gunmen on the offices of Charlie Hebdo
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
Brutal execution: A police officer pleads for mercy on the pavement in Paris before being shot in the head by masked gunmen during an attack on the headquarters of the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, a notoriously anti-Islamic publication
Gunned down in cold blood: Horrific footage shows the injured police officer slumped on the pavement as two of the gunmen approach. In a desperate plea for his life, the officer slowly raises his hand towards one of the attackers, who callously shoots him at point-blank range
'Massacre': The gunmen are seen brandishing Kalashnikovs as they move in on the injured police officer from their vehicle outside the office
Emergency: Police officers and firefighters gather in front of the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris today after gunmen stormed the building
Critical: Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher in front of the offices of French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo after the shooting
Despite a fierce firefight with police, the men were able to get away in a hijacked car, and, within an hour of the atrocity, appeared to have disappeared without trace.
France raised its security alert to the highest level and reinforced protective measures at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation.
President Francois Hollande described the bloodbath as a 'barbaric attack against France and against journalists' and vowed to hunt down those responsible.
Jacques Myard, French MP with opposition party UMP, said: 'We knew something would happen. The (security) services used to say to us it's not if but when and where. We know that we are at war. The Western nations - like Britain, France, Germany - we are at war.'
The Queen today sent her 'sincere condolences to the families of those who have been killed' in the attack, while Prime Minister David Cameron described the murders as 'sickening'.
Social media users have responded to the Charlie Hebdo massacre with an outpouring of solidarity using the hashtag #jesuischarlie which is trending on Twitter.
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By 4.15pm, nearly five hours after the attack, it had already been tweeted more than 250,000 times, according to one social analytics website.
Thousands of people also jammed Republique Square near the site of the shooting to honor the victims, holding aloft pens and papers reading 'Je suis Charlie' - 'I am Charlie.'
Guy Verhofstadt, the President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe tweeted: 'A tragic day for the freedom of speech #jesuischarlie.'
Marches have also been organised through Paris and London in support of journalistic freedom.
As well as the AK47 assault rifles, there were also reports of a rocket-propelled grenade being used in the attack, which took place during the publication's weekly editorial meeting at around 12pm (11pm GMT), meaning all the journalists would have been present.
A young mother and cartoonist who survived the massacre told how she had let the suspected Al Qaeda killers into the office.
Corrine Rey said she had returned from picking up her young daughter from a kindergarten when she was confronted by two heavily armed men wearing balaclavas.
'I had gone to pick up my daughter at day care, arriving in front of the building, where two masked and armed men brutally threatened us,' said Ms Rey, who draws under the name 'Coco'.
'They said they wanted to go up to the offices, so I tapped in the code,' said Ms Rey, referring to the digi-code security system on the interphone.
Ms Rey and her daughter hid under a desk, from where they saw two other cartoonists being executed. 'They shot Wolinski and Cabu,' she said. 'It lasted five minutes. I had taken refuge under a desk.'
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
At large: The gunmen are seen near the offices of the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo before fleeing in a car. They remain on the loose
Forensic experts examine the car believed to have been used as the escape vehicle by gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo office
A truck tows the car apprently used by armed gunmen who stormed the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people
A police photographer (partially hidden) works with investigators as they examine the impacts from machine gun fire on a police vehicle
Ms Rey said the men 'spoke French perfectly' and 'claimed they were 'Al Qaeda terrorists'.
Gunmen reportedly told another witness: 'You say to the media, it was Al Qaeda in Yemen.'
A police source told the Liberation newspaper the gunmen were asking for the Mr Charbonnier by name, shouting: 'Where is Charb? Where is Charb?'
The source added: 'They killed him then sprayed everyone else.'
Mr Charbonnier 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.
The latest tweet published by the newspaper's official Twitter account earlier in the day featured a cartoon of Abu Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State, who wishes everyone 'good health'.
Cartoonists Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski were all also reported dead.
Radio France chief executive Mathieu Gilet later announced on Twitter that a contributor, Bernard Maris, was another of the victims.
Meanwhile, there were reports of a car explosion outside a synagogue in Sarcelles, a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, just hours after the Charlie Hebdo attack.
The blast, which happened at around 1.30pm GMT, is not thought to be connected to the massacre, according to Paris Metro which quoted the mayor of Sarcelles.
Florence Pouvil, a salesperson at Lunas France on Rue Nicolas Appert, opposite the Charlie Hebdo offices, told MailOnline: 'I saw two people with big guns, like Kalashnikovs outside our office and then we heard firing. We were very confused.'
'There were two guys who came out of the building and shot everywhere. We hid on the floor, we were terrified.
'They came from the building opposite with big guns. It has a bunch of different companies inside. Some of our co-workers work there so we were frightened for them.
'They weren't just firing inside the Charlie Hebdo offices. They were firing in the street too.
'We feared for our lives so we hid under our desks so they wouldn't see us. Both men were dressed in black from head to toe and their faces were covered so I didn't see them.
'They were wearing military clothes, it wasn't common clothing, like they were soldiers.'
According to the New York Times, one journalist at the Charlie Hebdo office, who asked not to be named, texted a friend after the shooting to say: 'I'm alive. There is death all around me. Yes, I am there. The jihadists spared me.'
A man is carried into an ambulance. Ten people were reportedly in wounded, four critically, in the attack by suspected Al Qaeda militants
Life-threatening: An injured person is evacuated outside the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's office
Several people were left critically wounded when terrorists carried out a 'military-style' attack on the newspaper office
Shell-shocked: A woman cries outside the office. Witnesses reported hearing loud gunfire and at least one explosion during the attack
Trail of destruction: Police inspect the damage after a collision between police cars at the scene during a firefight with Islamic militants
Officers were involved in a gunfight with the men, who escaped in a hijacked car and sped away from the office towards east Paris
On red alert: After the first shots rang out, it is thought that three policemen on bicycles were the first to respond to the atrocity
Benoit Bringer, a journalist with Agence Premiere Ligne, told the iTele network he saw several masked men armed with machine guns
Carnage: A police official, Luc Poignant, said he was aware of one journalist dead and several injured, including three police officers
Terror: In footage filmed from a rooftop, people are seen running for cover as the gunmen rampage through the building
A picture posted on Twitter appearing to show people taking refuge on the roof of the Charlie Hebdo office
Targeted: A picture posted on Twitter reportedly showing bullets in one of the windows of the Charlie Hebdo offices
Another witness, Gilles Boulanger, who works in the same building, told Itele: 'A neighbour called to warn me that there were armed men in the building and that we had to shut all the doors.
'And several minutes later, there were several shots heard in the building from automatic weapons firing in all directions. So then we looked out of the window and saw the shooting was on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, with the police. It was really upsetting. You'd think it was a war zone.'
French journalist, Stefan De Vries, told Sky News: 'There was protection at the door but they killed the police officers, they executed them and they started shooting in the offices.'
An unnamed eyewitness told the BBC World Service: 'When I arrived at the scene it was quite disturbing as you can imagine. There were several corpses on the floor.
'We saw the number of casualties was very high, so we just tried to help as we could - there were a lot of people down on the floor and there was blood everywhere.
'I'm very traumatised by this attack and everything and now we're in psychological hell where we're being attended to by professionals.'
Benoit Bringer, a journalist at the scene who works next door, took refuge on the roof of the building, which is in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.
He said: 'There were very many people in the building. We evacuated via the roof just next to the office. After around ten minutes we saw two heavily armed, masked men in the street'.
Another witness said: 'There was a loud gunfire and at least one explosion. When police arrived there was a mass shoot-out. The men got away by car, stealing a car.'
A police official, Luc Poignant, said: 'It's carnage.'
After the shooting, hundreds of comments were posted on the Charlie Hebdo Twitter page, with one user, David Rault, writing: 'A sad day for freedom of expression.'
Charlie Hebdo's editor-in-chief Gerard Biard escaped the massacre because he was in London.
He told France Inter: 'I am shocked that people can have attacked a newspaper in France, a secular republic. I don't understand it.
'I don't understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war.'
High alert: French soldiers patrol at the Eiffel Tower after the Charlie Hebdo shooting as the militants are hunted across the city
France reinforced security at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transport after masked gunmen stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices
Mr Biard said he did not believe the attack was linked to the newspaper's latest front page, which featured novelist Michel Houellebecq, who has previously sparked controversy with comments about Islam.
And he said the newspaper had not received threats of violence: 'Not to my knowledge, and I don't think anyone had received them as individuals, because they would have talked about it. There was no particular tension at the moment.'
A visibly shocked French President François Hollande, speaking live near the scene of the shooting, said: 'France is today in shock, in front of a terrorist attack.
'This newspaper was threatened several rimes in the past and we need to show we are a united country.
'We have to be firm, and we have to be stand strong with the international community in the coming days and weeks.
'We are at a very difficult moment following several terrorist attacks. We are threated because we are a country of freedom
'We will punish the attackers. We will look for the people responsible.'
Defiant: Stephane Charbonnier, known by his pen name Charb, was editor of Charlie Hebdo, and gunned down by men with assault weapons
Mr Charbonnier was named as one of nine men the extreme Islamist group were targetting (pictured centre right). Their photographs were printed alongside the caption 'a bullet a day keeps the infidel away'
Tragic: Cartoonist Georges Wolinski was named by officials as one of those shot dead at the offices of Charlie Hebdo
Lead cartoonist Jean 'Cabu' Cabut (left) was among the 12 massacred by terrorists in Paris today, along with Bernard 'Tignous' Verlhac (right)
Radio France chief executive Mathieu Gilet announced on Twitter that a contributor, Bernard Maris (above right) was another of the victims
The Queen today sent her 'sincere condolences to the families of those who have been killed' in the attack.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron described the murders as 'sickening'.
He added: 'We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press.'
The British Foreign Office immediately updated is advice for travellers heading to Pairs, warning: 'There is a high threat from terrorism.'
It added: 'If you're in Paris or the Ile de France area take extra care and follow advice of French authorities.'
Luce Lapin and Laurent Leger, who have both worked at Charlie Hebdo, were using Twitter hours before the attack, with the most recent tweet posted by Lapin praising cartoonist Cabu.
It read: 'Cabu, a great man! And honest, he doesn't eat foie gras.'
While Leger's made a political point about taxes.
It said: 'Macron [French ministry of economy] wants more billionaires in France, the same that use tricks for not paying ISF [solidarity tax on wealth].'
Mohammed Moussaoui, president of the Union of French mosques, condemned the 'hateful act,' and urged Muslims and Christians 'to intensify their actions to give more strength to this dialogue to make a united front against extremism'.
Location: Officers were involved in a gunfight with the men, who escaped in a hijacked car and sped away from the office towards east Paris
The offices of the same newspaper were burnt down in a petrol attack in 2011 after running a magazine cover of the Prophet Mohammed as a cartoon character.
At the time, the editor-in-chief, Stephane Charbonnier, said Islam could not be excluded from freedom of the press.
He said: 'If we can poke fun at everything in France, if we can talk about anything in France apart from Islam or the consequences of Islamism, that is annoying.'
Mr Charbonnier, also known as Charb, said he did not see the attack on the newspaper as the work of French Muslims, but of what he called 'idiot extremists'.
'We have to be stand strong with the international community': A visibly shocked French President François Hollande arrives at the scene, where he promised to bring those responsible to justice
The cover showed Mohammed saying: '100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter'.
This week's Charlie Hebdo also featured the author Houellebecq, whose new novel imagines Muslims taking over the French government in 2022.
Inside, there was an editorial, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, and more cartoons - one showing the Prophet with a clown's red nose.
Depiction of the Prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam, but the newspaper denied it was trying to be provocative.
A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover.
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