Report: Multiple Wounded in Attack Near Former Charlie Hebdo Office with ‘Machete or Meat Cleaver’

Four people have reportedly been wounded in an attack near the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, France.

Details were scarce as of the time of publication, with BBC journalist Simon Cullen having suggested that actually two victims, not four — although current reports suggest that there were indeed four people injured, two seriously.

Cullen has also variously suggested variously that police were seeking two suspects and that they had detained a single suspect. The French interior ministry has instructed people to stay away from the area.

The BBC has also noted that a weapon “described as a machete or a meat cleaver” was recovered from the scene of the attack.

“A serious event has taken place in Paris. An armed attack was carried out in the 11th arrondissement of Paris in front of the old Charlie Hebdo office, resulting in 4 injured, 2 seriously injured,” confirmed the French prime minister, Jean Castex, who is attending the scene in person “to assure myself of the reality of the situation”.

Radical Islamic terrorists massacred Charlie Hebdo staffers and police officers in an organised attack on the offices in 2015, over the magazine publishing satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed which they deemed blasphemous.

The motivation for today’s attacks is yet to be determined, and a description of the suspected perpetrator or perpetrators has not been issued.

This story is developing…