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Four of France's most revered cartoonists - Stephane Charbonnier, Georges Wolinski, Bernard 'Tignous' Verlhac and Jean Cabut - were among 12 people executed by masked gunmen in Paris today at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Two masked men brandishing Kalashnikovs burst into the magazine's headquarters this morning, opening fire on staff. Police officers were involved in a gunfight with the men, who escaped in a hijacked car, speeding away towards east Paris and remain on the loose, along with a third armed man. Charbonnier, 47, known by his pen name Charb, was the editor of the weekly magazine, and once famously said 'I'd prefer to die standing than live on my knees'.