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On January 7, 2015, two gunmen stormed the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and killed 11 people. A 12th person was slain outside the premises shortly afterwards. The murders would mark the first three days of terrorist attacks in the French capital: the following day, another five innocent victims died in a related incident.
The Charlie Hebdo killings profoundly shocked France. The attack prompted an outpouring of grief across the country, expressed in a wave of "Je Suis Charlie" ("I Am Charlie") solidarity with the victims.
Today, Charlie Hebdo is still being published, with a special commemorative issue currently on sale marking the grim anniversary. And a decade on, it's worth reminding ourselves what fueled these dreadful assaults, and how the world reacted.
Click through and revisit January 7, 2015, a day forever forged in the collective consciousness of the French people.
A special edition of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has been published marking 10 years since the terror attack. The commemorative Charlie Hebdo, number 1694, is a double edition of 32 pages; 300,000 copies have been printed and went on sale January 7, 2025, for two weeks priced €5 (US$5.21).
The edition commemorating the 10th anniversary of the event centers on Charlie Hebdo's trademark theme: freedom of expression.
Charlie Hebdo's editor-in-chief, Gérard Biard, said in a recent interview that "they didn't kill Charlie Hebdo," adding that "we want it to last for a thousand years."
The tragic events of 10 years ago unfolded on January 7, 2015, when brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi stormed the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.
They entered the premises in Rue Nicolas-Appert and killed 11 people in retaliation for the satirical paper printing cartoons of the prophet Muhammed.
The dead were among France's most celebrated journalists and cartoonists and included deputy chief editor Bernard Maris, Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut (Cabu), Stéphane Jean-Abel Michel Charbonnier (Charb), Bernard Jean-Charles Verlhac (Tignous), and Philippe Honoré (Honoré). Not pictured, columnist Elsa Cayat, copy editor Mustapha Ourrad, Charb's bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro, and travel writer Michel Renaud were also slain in the building, as was Frédéric Boisseau, a maintenance worker killed in the lobby.
Another individual, police officer Ahmed Merabet, was murdered as he lay wounded on the pavement outside. Many others were hurt in the massacre.
The gunmen fled the scene in a getaway car. Shortly afterwards, a huge manhunt for the assailants began.
Police quickly identified the two suspects as French citizens born in Paris to Algerian immigrants. Both were affiliated with al Qaeda.
Police units searched apartments in the Île-de-France region, in Strasbourg, and in Reims. They then zeroed in on Corcy on January 8 after the discovery of one of the getaway vehicles.
The manhunt later concentrated on Picardy, particularly the area around Villers-Cotterêts and the village of Longpont, after the suspects robbed a nearby petrol station.
On January 9, special forces units and armed police converged on an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goële, where the Charlie Hebdo suspects were reportedly holding a hostage.
The Kouachi brothers had holed up in a warehouse and a lengthy standoff ensued. The siege lasted for eight to nine hours, ending only when both died in a shootout with gendarmes. The hostage was released unharmed.
During the standoff in Dammartin-en-Goële, another jihadist named Amedy Coulibaly had shot a trainee police officer before taking hostages at a kosher supermarket in the Porte de Vincennes area of Paris.
Inside the supermarket, Coulibaly killed four Jewish victims—three shoppers and a member of staff—and demanded that the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the Kouachi brothers, not be harmed.
Eventually special forces launched an assault on the grocery store. Coulibaly was killed and the 15 hostages rescued.
In the aftermath of the attacks, an estimated one million people converged in central Paris for a "Unity March," joining in solidarity with the 17 victims of the terrorist attacks.
The slogan "Je Suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie") was adopted by supporters of freedom of speech and freedom of the press after the shooting. France's Muslim leadership sharply condemned the shooting at the Paris satirical weekly and the supermarket.
The Arc de Triomphe served as a monumental canvas on which the slogan was projected.
Soon, "Je Suis Charlie" became a rallying cry beyond French borders. In Spain, people holding placards gathered in front of the Embassy of France in Madrid.
In the United States, the Empire State Building was illuminated in the colors of the French flag as a tribute to those who lost their lives. The iconic structure was dimmed for five minutes.
Muslim groups gathered at the Brandenburg Gate to commemorate the victims of the terror attacks in Paris, and were unanimous in their condemnation of the terror sprees in Paris by Islamic extremists.
In London, crowds packed Trafalgar Square for a solidarity and remembrance rally called in response to the atrocities.
A floral tribute was displayed on railings following a minute of silence in front of the French Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
A month after the shootings in January, Charlie Hebdo was again on the newsstands, the February 2015 edition proclaiming: "C'est Reparti!"—"Here we go again!"
On December 16, 2020, a French court convicted 14 accomplices in relation to the attacks in 2015. One suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene (pictured), the former partner of Coulibaly, was one of the three suspects tried in absentia. She's believed to have escaped to Syria and joined ISIS.
In September 2020, Zaher Hassan Mahmood, a Pakistani-born terrorist, attacked two people with a cleaver outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo, unaware that the newspaper had left the premises after the 2015 attack. This court sketch made on January 6, 2025, shows the defendant, second right, during his trial for attempted murder at the Juvenile Assize Court in Paris.
Today a mural by artist Christian Guemy, dedicated to the staff of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper who were killed in 2015, adorns a wall near the former offices in Rue Nicolas- Ruppert.
Across Paris, a commemorative plaque bearing the names of the victims on the facade of the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket serves as another reminder of the attacks.
Sources: (France 24) (The Guardian) (Time) (BBC)
Remembering the Charlie Hebdo attacks 10 years on
France is still "Je Suis Charlie"
LIFESTYLE Society
On January 7, 2015, two gunmen stormed the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and killed 11 people. A 12th person was slain outside the premises shortly afterwards. The murders would mark the first three days of terrorist attacks in the French capital: the following day, another five innocent victims died in a related incident.
The Charlie Hebdo killings profoundly shocked France. The attack prompted an outpouring of grief across the country, expressed in a wave of "Je Suis Charlie" ("I Am Charlie") solidarity with the victims.
Today, Charlie Hebdo is still being published, with a special commemorative issue currently on sale marking the grim anniversary. And a decade on, it's worth reminding ourselves what fueled these dreadful assaults, and how the world reacted.
Click through and revisit January 7, 2015, a day forever forged in the collective consciousness of the French people.