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.