Charlie Hebdo cartoonist who let the terrorist into the office speaks, says she was under desk as massacre took place

Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Corrine Rey (pictured above) was the person who let two armed terrorists into the French satirical magazine's office today. The young mother said she 'd just returned from picking her daughter from school when she was confronted by the men who threatened to kill her daughter if she doesn't give them the entry code for the building.

"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. They said they wanted to go up to the offices, so I tapped in the code" she told a French publication

The young mother said she and her daughter hid under a desk where they witnessed the massacre, and killing of at least two cartoonist."They shot Wolinski and Cabu. It lasted five minutes. I had taken refuge under a desk." See photos of the people who died after the cut...

 

Corrinne Rey survived

Killed: Stephane Charbonnier, the editor of Charlie Hebdo

Cartoonist Georges Wolinski was killed

Lead cartoonist Jean 'Cabu' Cabut (left) and with Bernard 'Tignous' Verlhac (right) were killed

Contributor, Bernard Maris, was another of the victims

The French newspaper Charlie Hebdo's staple is to be provocative -- poking fun at popes, presidents as well as the Prophet Muhammad.
The satirical weekly has a history of drawing outrage across the Muslim world with crude cartoons of Islam's holiest figure. The magazine's offices, where 12 people were killed by gunmen Wednesday, were firebombed in November 2011 after it published a spoof issue that "invited" Muhammad to be its guest editor and put his caricature on the cover.
A year later, the magazine published more Muhammad drawings amid an uproar over an anti-Muslim film. The cartoons depicted Muhammad naked and in demeaning or pornographic poses. As passions raged, the French government defended free speech even as it rebuked Charlie Hebdo for fanning tensions.

 2012 file photo of Charb, the publishing director of the satyric weekly Charlie Hebdo, displays the front page of the newspaper as he poses for photographers in Paris. Photo / AP
The small-circulation weekly leans toward the left and takes pride in making acerbic commentary on world affairs through cartoons and spoof reports.

"We treat the news like journalists. Some use cameras, some use computers. For us, it's a paper and pencil," the Muhammad cartoonist, who goes by the name Luz, told The Associated Press in 2012. "A pencil is not a weapon. It's just a means of expression."
Editor Stephane Charbonnier, among the 10 journalists killed, also defended the Muhammad cartoons speaking to The AP in 2012.
"Muhammad isn't sacred to me," said Charbonnier, who used the pen name Charb. "I don't blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law. I don't live under Quranic law."
Islam is not alone in being singled out by Charlie Hebdo's satire. Past covers include retired Pope Benedict XVI in amorous embrace with a Vatican guard; former French President Nicolas Sarkozy looking like a sick vampire; and an Orthodox Jew kissing a Nazi soldier.
The magazine occasionally publishes investigative journalism, taking aim at France's high and mighty.
Charlie Hebdo has come under pressure ever since its 2011 Muhammad issue. Its website has been hacked. It faced a lawsuit over the prophet cartoons. Riot police once guarded its offices. Charb lived under police protection -- and his body guard was killed Wednesday along with another officer.
Charb told Le Monde newspaper two years ago: "I'd rather die standing than live on my knees."
One of his last cartoons, published in this week's issue, seemed an eerie premonition.
"Still no attacks in France," an extremist fighter says. "Wait -- we have until the end of January to present our New Year's wishes."

The last tweet from Charlie Hebdo's twitter account about an hour before they were attacked by 3 masked gunmen who stormed the office of the magazine, was a cartoon of ISIS leader. The editor-in-chief of the magazine, known for satirizing religion, Stephane Charbonnier, three well know cartoonists, four other journalists and two police officers were killed in the attack. Eight others were wounded, four of them in critical condition.

  

Several people have been killed by armed gunmen in a shooting at the Paris offices of a satirical magazine, according to French media reports.

Two masked men (pictured) brandishing Kalashnikovs stormed the headquarters of French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, this afternoon and opened fire on staff, killing 12 people and wounding 10, including reporters, administrative staff and two police police officers.
According to local media reports, some witnesses claimed that the attackers stalked the building for a few minutes, asking for people that work at the magazine by name before opening fire, and killing the mag's editor and cartoonist while they were having their editorial meeting.
The attack is supposedly in revenge for the magazine's mockery of the Holy Prophet Mohammed in a cartoon. A journalist with Europe1 News said several men in black were heard shouting 'the Prophet has been avenged', after the mass shooting. Police chased the attacker but the men managed to escape in a car they hijacked. The attackers are still on the loose. See photos below...

The men seen near the French magazine office

French President François Hollande arrives at the scene, where he promised to bring those responsible to justice

Shooting was heard at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine known for publishing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2012.

 Police officers and firefighters gather in front of the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Photo / AFP "Several men in black cagoules were heard to shout 'the Prophet has been avenged'", wrote Pierre de Cossette, a broadcast journalist with Europe1 News. "I think there are casualties," said the publication's cartoonist, Renaud Luzier. The magazine is based in Paris's 11th arrondissement. The latest tweet published by the magazine's official twitter account appeared to be a cartoon of Abu Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

AFP just tweeted photos of some of the cartoonists that work at French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, who were killed today January 7th by masked gunmen while having their editorial meeting.

Charlie Hebdo journalist tells Le Monde: These past ‬ few months we didn't have any great concern despite the threats. Naturally, our offices were under police protection, which reminded us of the threats. Charb was under police protection but he moved around without his policemen, which was a sign he wasn't worried all the time. Luz and Riss (other cartoonists) were also under police protection but it was lifted around a year ago. We received email threats all the time and phone calls. But we didn't really take them seriously. We had got used to it. Recently we thought the threats were pretty much over. 13.16 The Telegraph's Philip Johnston writes: The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo had no qualms about lampooning Islam. Why should it? In a free and liberally-inclined country like France it routinely took the mickey out of politicians and creeds whatever their source. But the editors knew they were running a risk by sending up Islam because militants will simply not accept that their religion be traduced in any way – and are prepared to kill or threaten to make their point.
 

They never shied away from the most controversial of topics. From the death of Charles de Gaulle to the birth of Islamic extremism, the journalists of France's foremost satirical magazine have endured a turbulent history.
Founded in 1969 as Hara-Kiri Hebdo, the weekly publication quickly attracted - and eventually adopted as its official slogan - accusations of being "dumb and nasty".
The founding editors, humorist Georges Bernier and François Cavanna, enjoyed their first fracas with the establishment in November 1970, joking about the death of a former French president.
Charles de Gaulle died at home in the village of Colombey-les-Deux-Églises aged 79, a week after a nightclub fire in south-eastern France killed 146 people.

2012 file photo of Charb, the publishing director of the satyric weekly Charlie Hebdo, displays the front page of the newspaper as he poses for photographers in Paris. Photo / AP
"Tragic Ball at Colombey, one dead" was the magazine's headline. The country's interior minister swiftly banned Hara-Kiri Hebdo, forcing the group to change their name.

Taking inspiration from a monthly comics magazine produced by two of the team and in homage to Charlie Brown of Peanuts, Charlie Hebdo was born the following week.
In the decade that followed, the founding group stumbled on while struggling to find an audience. Until, in 1981, reportedly due to a lack of readers, the magazine was closed.
It reemerged in 1991 under the control of Philippe Val, a French comedian and journalist who would edit the publication for 17 years.
During that time the magazine would become famous for another controversy; its full-throated opposition to religious fundamentalism and restrictions on freedom of speech.
It started in February 2006, in the midst of a global row about the publication of images of the Prophet Muhammed sketched by a Danish cartoonist.
Under the title "Muhammed overwhelmed by fundamentalists", Charlie Hebdo printed a front-page cartoon of the Islamic figure weeping and saying, "it's hard being loved by jerks".
Inside, they reproduced 12 of the controversial Danish cartoons and added more of their own design.
The magazine tripled its usual sales and the politicians whose predecessors had once forced Hebdo to close came rushing to its defence.
(With the exception of then French President Jacques Chirac, who said: "Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided.")
Six months later, in February 2007, several Muslim groups took Charlie Hebdo to court for publicly "insulting" Islam.
Philippe Val described the trial as a "witch hunt" and Francois Hollande, then Socialist party secretary and current President of France, testified in favour of freedom of expression.
The magazine was ultimately cleared of "racial insults" for publishing the cartoons and a court ruling upheld Mr Val's right to satire Islamic extremism.
Four years later, after little further incitement from Hebdo, its offices were burned in an apparent arson attack on the day after it published an issue with the Prophet Mohammed as its "editor-in-chief".
He was depicted on the front page saying: "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter".
The magazine was forced to move office from 20th arrondissement to Rue Serpollet, where on Wednesday 10 Hebdo journalists - including Charb, Val's successor - were killed.
But Islam was not alone in attracting Hebdo's derision. Past covers include retired Pope Benedict XVI in amorous embrace with a Vatican guard; former French President Nicolas Sarkozy looking like a sick vampire; and an Orthodox Jew kissing a Nazi soldier.
Yet the attack has inspired unanimous backing for the magazine's right to free expression from the very people it lampooned.
Vatican officials said the assault had targeted not just the magazine's journalists but the liberty of the press in general.
Mr Hollande said: "This is an act of exceptional barbarity [...] against freedom of expression, against journalists who always wanted to show thay they could act in France to defend their ideas and specifically to have this freedom that the French republic protects."
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We stand squarely for free speech and democracy."
This is an intolerable act, an act of barbarism which challenges us all as humans and Europeans," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
"It is an attack on freedom of expression and the press - a key component of our free democratic culture - which cannot be justified," said Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.