Charlie Hebdo massacre-Female survivor reveals why she was spared as staff mistook gun sounds for fire crackers

 As the French forces close in on the terrorists behind the Charlie Hebdo massacre,a journalist has revealed how the terrorists who massacred her Charlie Hebdo colleagues spared her life - because she was a woman.
Reporter Sigolene Vinson survived the brutal attack on the French satirical magazine, in which 12 people including six of her co-workers and two police officers were shot dead. She told Radio France Internationale that one of the killers held a gun to her head, but decided against killing her too.
Miss Vinson said the one of the shooters told her:

'I'm not killing you because you are a woman and we don't kill women but you have to convert to Islam, read the Qu'ran and wear a veil.'
She added that the men shouted 'Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar' as they fled the scene.

Charlie Hebdo magazine staff thought a terrorist attack on their offices was a 'joke' involving fire crackers before being gunned down in cold blood, it emerged today


Today survivor Laurent Leger, a Charlie Hebdo journalist who was in the room where most of the victims were slaughtered, told how some were laughing when they first heard shots.

'We thought it was a joke, that it was fire crackers' said Mr Leger.
'Then we heard footsteps. The door opened. A guy shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) 'He looked like a GIGN and RAID guy, he was hooded. He was all in black. He had a gun he was holding with both hands.'

Mr Leger said he saw 'barbarism enter the newspaper' as the terrorists called out the name 'Charb', referring to editor Stephane Charbonnier, one of those killed.

'They called out the name of Charb, yes. But after that they fired into the group,' said Mr Leger, who said he threw himself under a table to get away from the gunman and 'escaped his eyes.'

The shooter then turned to his accomplice, with Mr Leger saying: 'He said he thought he had killed everybody, but did not kill women.'

 Suspects: The three men were named as Cherif Kouachi (left), 32, his brother Said Kouachi (right), 34, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, of Gennevilliers

French special forces rush to the scene of a hostage-taking at an industrial estate in Dammartin-en-Goele, where the two Charlie Hebdo gunmen are holed up in a printing business amid firefights with police

Armed police train their weapons on a building where the the two Charlie Hebdo gunmen are holed up with a hostage as they sit in a helicopter over the village of Dammartin-en-Goele

                                     The bloody scene

                   Staff who lost their lives circled in red

Culled from Daily mail.Uk