Four of France’s best known cartoonists shot dead in this morning’s terror attack have been named.
Masked gunmen stormed Charlie Hebdo’s Paris headquarters, killing 12 people including a number of members of staff and two police officers.
Cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Stephane Charbonnier, Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac and Jean Cabut have now been named as four of those killed.
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 Qaida.
The gunmen are believed to have targeted specific members of staff, with eye witnesses reporting that the gunmen called out their names after they entered the building.
Charlie Hebdo’s editor-in-chief Gerard Biard, who was in London at the time of the attack, told France Inter: “I don’t understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war.”
He said the magazine 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.”
An Australian cartoonist has penned his own cartoon as a tribute to the victims, while a number of other satirical writers have spoken of their shock
Ian Hislop, editor of British satirical magazine Private Eye, said the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting “paid a very high price for exercising their comic liberty”.
“I am appalled and shocked by this horrific attack – a murderous attack on free speech in the heart of Europe.
“I offer my condolences to the families and friends of those killed – the cartoonists, journalists and those who were trying to protect them.
“They paid a very high price for exercising their comic liberty.”
The editor-in-chief of British satire website The Daily Mash has spoken of his shock at the terror attack, saying that the best response from fellow satirists is to carry on as normal.
Neil Rafferty said he and the website’s team of writers felt the murderous attack was “beyond belief”.
He said that his site, which has already expressed solidarity with the French magazine on Twitter and Facebook, was planning its own response: “We are a little bit shocked. I think me and the writers think it is beyond belief really.
“You think if it is possible that these sorts of extremists would turn their guns on writers and satirists. It seems such an extreme possibility that when it happens it shocks you to the core.
“We are just discussing some ideas about how we might respond. The most important thing is to carry on doing what we do, business as usual for satirists.
“There is no question you feel intimidated, but you carry on.”