Charlie Hebdo Staffer: ‘It Lasted Five Minutes… They Spoke French Perfectly’

Police officers and rescue workers gather at the scene after gunmen stormed a French newspaper, killing at least 12 people, in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. Masked gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar!" stormed the Paris ... Police officers and rescue workers gather at the scene after gunmen stormed a French newspaper, killing at least 12 people, in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. Masked gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar!" stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, including the paper's editor and a cartoonist, before escaping in a getaway car. It was France's deadliest terror attack in at least two decades. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere) MORE LESS
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A staffer for satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo said that masked attackers threatened her to gain access to its offices as they launched their attack Wednesday and claimed to belong to Al-Qaeda.

Corinne Rey, known as Coco, told French publication L’Humanite that she was “brutally threatened” by two armed men at the door of the newspaper’s offices after picking her daughter up from daycare.

“They wanted to enter, go up. I typed the code,” she said, as quoted by The Guardian. “They shot Wolinski, Cabu … it lasted five minutes … I had taken refuge under a desk.”

Rey was referring to two of the newspaper’s prominent cartoonists, who were among the 12 people killed in the attack.

“They spoke French perfectly … claiming to be Al-Qaida,” she said of the assailants, as quoted by the Guardian.

Other French media reported that the assailants told an eyewitness to “tell the media that we are from Al-Qaida in the Yemen,” according to The Guardian.

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