On January 7, 2015, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, wielding Kalashnikovs, burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices in eastern Paris and killed 12 people.
ADVERTISEMENTFrench Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Ile-de-France Region President Valérie Pécresse attended a wreath-laying ceremony in Paris, to mark the anniversary of the terror attack against the offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Seven years ago on Thursday, a terror attack on the French satirical magazine transformed a fading publication into a global symbol of freedom of expression and brought millions of people onto France's streets in protest.
On January 7, 2015, brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, wielding Kalashnikovs, burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices in eastern Paris and asked for editor Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, and four other cartoonists by name before shooting them dead.
Three other editorial staff, a guest attending a meeting, the cartoonists' police bodyguard, a caretaker, and a policeman sprawled on the pavement were also killed.
In a scene caught on video by a resident of an apartment block nearby, one of the men yelled "We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed" — a reference to Charlie's publication of cartoons of the founder of Islam — before they drove off.