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WARNING - EXPLICIT: First picture inside the bloodied Charlie Hebdo offices as survivors recall events
The shocking image taken from inside the magazine office shows the aftermath of the death of 10 staff members.
17:00 09 January 2015
The first picture inside the bloodied Charlie Hebdo office shows scattered papers lying on the floor with pool of gore and bloody footprints.
The small Parisian back street office was the site of a targeted terrorist massacre that claimed the lives of 10 staff members.
The image is the first to be taken from inside the offices of satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, where two masked gunmen executed members of the staff in a five minute-long attack.
Among the casualties are editor Stephane Charbonnier and cartoonists Cabu, Tignous and George Wolinski, who had become a household name because of their witty and provocative work. Also among the dead were the economist and journalist Bernard Maris and psychology columnist Elsa Cayat. The attack took place during the morning editorial meeting.
Reports say that one of the killers pointed a gun at a female staff member but did not pull the trigger. He was alleged to say: "We will not kill you because we do not kill women. But read the Qur'an."
Charlie Hebdo journalist Laurent Leger managed to avoid being killed by hiding under a desk. Recalling his sighting of the Islamist gunman who massacred his office co-workers, he said: "I saw horror. He was masked, dressed all in black, he was holding his weapon with both hands.
“And then the shooting started, the smell of gunpowder ... by chance I threw myself behind the table and he didn’t see me ... a few seconds, and everyone was on the ground.”