Ten years ago today, on January 7, 2015, the editorial staff of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was the target of an attack perpetrated by two terrorists.
1 minute
January 7, 2015, 11:30 a.m. In a building at 11e arrondissement of Paris, the editorial conference of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo ends. The journalists are still talking and laughing. In the street, two men in black, hooded, Kalashnikovs in hand, entered the lobby of the building and coldly shot dead Frédéric Boisseau, a maintenance worker.
The commando continues its route to the newspaper’s premises, taking aim at the designer Coco. Under threat, she types in the code for the armored door that protects the editorial office. On site, the terrorists killed ten people, including eight members of the editorial staff. Their names were Cabu, Charb, Tignous, Honoré, Wolinski, Bernard Maris, Mustapha Ourrad, Elsa Cayat, Michel Renaud and Franck Brinsolaro.
The attackers flee. Their car breaks through the streets and breaks through police barriers. On Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, the two men shot dead Ahmed Merabet, a police officer on a bicycle who was trying to stop them, at point-blank range. Forced to hastily abandon their car – embedded in a block – the terrorists rob a motorist, seize his vehicle and disappear. The police lose track of the two men at the gates of Paris. On the evening of January 7, a search of their Citroën identified two people. Two brothers: Chérif and Saïd Kouachi. The manhunt is on.
January 7, 2015Looking back on a dark day