>> welcome back. thousands of people are gathering tonight in cities across france to show their solidarity for the victims of this country's deadliest terrorist attack in decades. a massacre of the paris offices of the satirical newspaper charlie hebdo. it includes the magazine's editor several cartoonists, a regular commentator on this channel and two police officers. gunmen stormed the building shouted god is great in arabic.

we have the latest. >> men who just shot a police officer. we killed charlie hebdo, they add. they then make their escape. minutes before journalists working in the same building taken refuge on the roof. to the left, over there, someone shouts. they fled after gunmen entered the satirical newspapers offices and opened fire. >> what we know right now is that three men wearing commando hood got out of the vehicle near charlie hebdo and had automatic

weapons, killing all who were present. >> the journalists who fled to the roof witnessed the gunbattle down below. >> we were having breakfast and had gunshots. we looked outside and we saw one search and a second run after a third person. the police officer was going forward and shouted at us. there were many of us watching from the window. he told us to go back inside. that's what we did. >> police are chasing the attackers that they believe escaped by car northward out of paris. >> the president has declared a day of mourning here in france. on tomorrow, thursday. remembering the attack at mid

day. >> we must be ourselves. conscious of the fact that our best weapon is our unity. they have always vanquished enemies when they have united around values. that's what i invite you to do. to come together. that is what our response must be. let's come together against this ordeal and we will prevail. >> our chief foreign editor, social media editor, and our french affairs editor. to go back to the speech, the message tonight, unity and communities must stick together otherwise, the terrorist have won. >> it's the message we heard from other leaders when terrorist attacks happen on their soil.

seeing that the perpetrators will be brought to justice. he was speaking in the future tense because they are still lose. -- still loose. hoping he would address the nation on prime time, he hoped to have better news to bring to the french. he was calling for unity and described the attack as a cowardly assassination and an attack on french values that the republic was struck in the heart. obviously, he was hinting at the tensions with the muslim community. france has the largest community in western europe and is hoping that there will not be backlash against the muslim community at a time when it is used of not standing up in a strong and clear voice against radical islam.

at a time when the far right is feeding on the fears of radical islam. the leader of the far right was the clear winner in the last european elections. she stands a good chance of making it to the second round. this is a time of unity as the president has said. he knows that the climate is very tense and he is hoping for a day of mourning when flags will be flying at half mast. there will be a strong show of solidarity by all kinds of french. french of all origins and all religious beliefs. >> in what is a secular country. >> a country that has been really struggling with lots of tensions because of unemployment

and a lot of unhappiness against immigrants. this was the message tonight even though we still don't know who the perpetrators were and there is no official claim of responsibility. >> we are down at the palace where francois hollande made this speech earlier. telling us there, a pretty brief statement calling for unity. and speaking as the government is still at large. >> nine hours after the barbaric attack and the perpetrators are still at large. many people have been asking us if we had any idea or any leads. the government is being quite private about this. there is no purpose in sharing information on potential lead that they have. tomorrow, they will change their plans. francois hollande will gather at

830 them are morning -- 8:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. the renowned resistance fighter in world war ii, these take different tones given the gravity of the situation today. and for the moment, it's really a matter of managing the investigation into the perpetrators. the prime minister looking after the reuniting of the political parties and the various groups affected. >> as we have been reporting police a that at least two people that were behind that attack are still at large. they have been described as armed and extremely dangerous. let's take a look at the paris prosecutor speaking earlier. >> this morning, they arrived at the front of the headquarters.

two individuals got out of the car, dressed in black. and were carrying automatic weapons. kalashnikov assault rifles. to maintenance workers at the reception, at the entrance of the premises, where they could find the charlie hedbdo building and immediately opened fire to kill one of them. on the second floor, they went to the newsroom. where the editorial team is gathered. the two men opened fire and killed 10 people. eight journalists, one policeman who was assigned to protect one of the newspaper's senior staff members, and guests. they cried to avenge their profit. -- prophet.

>> beginning about an hour ago on the investigation so far. it the government fled the scene and they have managed to escape the authorities pretty quickly. a quiet neighborhood in paris. an absolute shock to the people that live there. when you hear the kalashnikov gun going off, it is literally like a war zone. >> the lady was saying it was having breakfast and drinking coffee and mayhem broke out. total shock that something of that magnitude in that order on the streets of central paris. people obviously are aware of the possibility of something

like that happening. but it is one thing to visit it in theory and another to experience it when it is exploding all around you and when armed men are firing kalashnikov rifles that make a lot of noise. >> cold-blooded assassinations. reportedly, the gunman went in and said the names of the journalist before they murdered them one by one. sitting around a table having and weekly editorial meeting. it doesn't appear to be the work of amateurs. you can see them leave as well. they are calm and don't seem particularly panicked at all. >> they seemed very clinical. the seems to have known when was the optimum time to be at charlie hebdo's headquarters.

that an editorial meeting was about to be held. they knew exactly who they wanted to kill. the withdraw from the building was also carried out in a very professional way. one of them noticed that one of his shoes of fallen off the side of the car, picked it up and put it in the car and they drove off. it does suggest a level of professionalism we have not seen in more recent attacks in france, but whether this is to suggest that they are linked with al qaeda or the islamic state is going a step too far. perhaps they've had some sort of training or some sort of experience in conflict zones in the middle east. but we really can't do more than speculate because we do not have any concrete information. >> is talk of it about the

victims in today's attack. the editor in chief of charlie had no -- hebdo. he was something of a household name known as charb. he said he would rather die than live on his knees. he was a committed city nearest and a household name. and he really was the driving force behind the unflinching mockery of political figures. they make cartoons poking fun of the former pope, christianity, orthodox jews, and fatally, they also mocked islam. >> it was founded in 1970. the provocation is strongly antireligious. the trademark caricatures have

already sparked controversy. most memorably in 2012 surrounding the defection -- depiction of the prophet mohammed. it drew many complaints, accusing it of insulting the profit as well as inciting religious hatred. sales of that edition went through the roof. he's no stranger to making headlines. it reprinted cartoons of the prophet mohammed originally published in the danish newspaper. in 2011, the front page sold 200,000 copies that resulted in an arson attack on its premises. >> as we have been reporting one of the victims in today's brutal assassination, let's take a quick listen to him and his philosophy of what he was all about. he was speaking to abc about a year ago.

>> our job is not to defend freedom of speech. but without freedom of speech, we are dead. we can't live in a country without freedom of speech. i would rather die than live like a rat. >> and being afraid of speaking. >> >> right after the newspaper offices were bombed, actually. as we have been telling you tonight, people are not sitting at home feeling fearful. a lot of people in paris and other cities coming out to make their feelings of outrage known.

you're looking at live pictures. around 15,000 people have braved the freezing temperatures to come out and say we are all charlie. just making people aware of their feelings of solidarity. >> the spontaneous gathering here, a 15 minute walk from the charlie abdo offices where this killings to waste this morning. we rounded up -- arrive at about 5 p.m.. that number had gone up to about 5000 and the numbers keep growing. the paris mayor is here tonight as well. the crowd shouted and cheering. i am charlie, i am charlie. most of them had said to us that

they are not necessarily regular readers. but they want to protect freedom of the press and they are appalled by the killings it to place this morning. >> people gathering in other cities with people really coming out on the streets. i have been talking about the campaign in the streets. >> you heard them chanting i am charlie. that has become the rallying cry, the jhashstagtag on social media.

that is actually the twitter account of the u.s. embassy in france, for example. there are some statistics at around 7:30 p.m. tonight french time. over 4000 tweets a minute with the #iamcharlie. je suis charlie. it had 13,000 people attending that event. and some images from earlier today, we were just talking about. it's an image this evening from the bretton city in front of the parliament building and ran -- in ren. it says "not afraid." i think people put that particular slogan together with their mobile phone screen.

people were anxious to get that message out. i think people were aware that the eyes of the world were focused and that is an image the same statue, someone brandishing a pen. showing images of pencils and pens. the pen is mightier than the sword. that is the message people wanted to get out there and be independent here. those are images from london's trafalgar square there. across france in particular, people with a huge french population. i imagine people enter falter square were french themselves. that is the picture of the flag being drawn by francois hollande

, flags being floated half-mast for the next three days. >> and there is a debate online about whether or not to put the cartoons on their front pages tomorrow. >> it is a debate that goes back 2005. he initially republished care or's of the prophet mohammed that had been in the danish press. they were at the forefront of the campaign at the time to defend press freedom. what happens with the 12 cartoons sparked protests around the world in which 140 people were killed. there was an appeal across the media to share those cartoons and defending the principle of freedom of speech. many were afraid to do that. they felt it was a dangerous move.

charlie hebdo took the decision to publish those cartoons and it maintained that position throughout the last 10 years. and in the aftermath of printing those cartoons, they were sued for racism by various groups that saw this as provocative. >> it was seen as very provocative and then 2011 they were firebombed. they were very much the forefront of the defense of freedom of speech. it is just extremely tragic. >> this response is interesting. police say 100,000 people 15,000 right here in paris. we have seen horrible terrorist attacks and rarely is there this kind of response.

really on french values. >> people are taking this attack on core values. the global response has been like that as well. that we have seen that across the world and at a popular level as well, the response on twitter has been enormous. this is a feeling that this is a real strike against the core values globally. and unless ordinary people respond in a forthright manner to something really important, it could be lost. an attempt to regain the ground that for a little while, this morning and soon to be lost. >> down at what is still a crime

scene. she is close to where the charlie abdo -- behebdo offices today. >> while the hashtag is filling up, this site is as well. appearing to return to normal. there are still police barriers about 50 meters behind me preventing anyone from going to the actual street where thereir offices are based. there is clearly a feeling of shock and concern by people who live in the area. the forensic team is still in the building. we heard that the interior minister is due to return back to the scene a little later.

we'll have to wait and see what he has to add to it. among those i have spoken to today, they're starting to digest the horror of what happened. and i have come across a variety of attitudes. people say that they have concerns there will be up blowback on the muslim communities. others say that even though they didn't agree with charlie hebdo's editorial line, it doesn't excuse a response that involves killing innocents. amongst everyone i have spoken to is a feeling of a rejection of any attack on freedom of speech. i asked a few people whether they ought they would be taking part in tomorrow's minute of

silence. the answer was a resounding yes. >> down where this attack happened about eight hours ago now. the terrorist threat level which includes paris is now at its highest. and that means and ends to things like school trips. there will be a lot more armed police officers at public places , shopping centers, airports train stations. that kind of thing. >> halloween is it -- following an attack, they updated the security protocol. the interior minister vowed

maximum protection for french people. >> our objective and our duty is to ensure the safety of all french citizens throughout the country. that is why the prime minister took the decision this morning to bolster the antiterrorist security plans for the peruvian region. wax they rated the security level when the intelligence services detect a heightened threat. following the shootings at this cool trip -- the shootings school trips have been put on hold. they were first conceived in 1978 and since then, it has evolved drastically. it was abandoned last year.

they warned of increased chances of a terrorist assault. >> still with me in the studio, we are at the highest level here in france. a recent survey showed that people were already very concerned about a terrorist attack in france. a lot of people focused on the islamic state group. a number of french citizens that of gone to fight jihad have come back and radicalized. that was a big fear for people and there is a fear now that

m pacifica this is democracy now. in paris france at least 12 people are shot dead in the offices of a satirical newspaper that published cartoons of the prophet mohammed. we will get the latest. then, to ferguson. >> after their exhaustive review of the evidence, the grand jury deliberated over two days amid making the final decision. they determined no probable cause exists to file any charges