The latest edition of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo was sold out before dawn around Paris, and still people are lining up at kiosks in case of a spare copy of the paper fronting the Prophet Mohammed.
The core of the irreverent newspaper’s staff perished a week ago when extremists stormed its offices, killing 12. Those who survived put out the issue that appeared on newsstands on Wednesday, working out of borrowed offices, with a print run of 3 million more than 50 times the usual circulation.
One newsstand just off Paris’ Champs Elysee sold out at 6.05 am (local time) five minutes after opening. At Saint-Lazare, people hoping to buy a copy were upset when they realised there weren’t enough to go around.
>Recent security incidents in France
- ›Dec. 1, 2007 - Gunmen suspected of belonging to Basque separatist group ETA kill two Spanish policemen working undercover in France.
- ›Jan. 11, 2009 - Arsonists use fire bombs to attack a synagogue near Paris and a place of worship in Strasbourg.
- ›Nov. 10, 2010 - Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux announces the arrest of five French nationals suspected of conspiring to launch a terror attack in France.
- ›November 2011 - A firebomb attack guts the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.
- ›March 2012 - Mohamed Merah, an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, kills seven people in three separate shootings in Toulouse. Victims included three soldiers of North African origin, a rabbi and his two young children.
- ›December 2014 - A man shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) injures 13 by ramming a vehicle into a crowd in the eastern city of Dijon. Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France has "never before faced such a high threat linked to terrorism".