PARIS (AP) — Masked gunmen shouting “Allahu akbar!” stormed the Paris offices of a satirical newspaper Wednesday, 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.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces were hunting for three gunmen after the noon-time attack on the weekly Charlie Hebdo, whose caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed have frequently drawn condemnation from Muslims.

French President Francois Hollande called the slayings “a terrorist attack without a doubt” and said several other attacks have been thwarted in France “in recent weeks.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

France raised its security alert to the highest level and reinforced protective measures at houses of worship, stores, media offices and transportation. Top government officials held an emergency meeting and Hollande planned a nationally televised address in the evening. Schools across the French capital closed their doors.

World leaders including President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack, but supporters of the militant Islamic State group celebrated the slayings as well-deserved revenge against France.

The Islamic State group has repeatedly threatened to attack France. Just minutes before the attack, Charlie Hebdo had tweeted a satirical cartoon of that extremist group’s leader giving New Year’s wishes. Another cartoon, released in this week’s issue and entitled “Still No Attacks in France,” had a caricature of an extremist fighter saying “Just wait — we have until the end of January to present our New Year’s wishes.”

The 12 dead included two men who went by the pen names: Charb — the editor and a cartoonist as well — and the cartoonist Cabu, spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre of the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed.

Two police officers were also among the dead, including one assigned as Charb’s bodyguard after prior death threats against him, a police official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

Just before noon, multiple masked men armed with automatic weapons attacked the newspaper’s office in central Paris, nearby worker Benoit Bringer told the iTele network. The attackers went to the second floor and started firing indiscriminately in the newsroom, said Christophe DeLoire of Reporters Without Borders.

“This is the darkest day of the history of the French press,” DeLoire said.

Video images on the website of public broadcaster France Televisions showed two gunmen in black at a crossroads who appeared to fire down one of the streets. A cry of “Allahu akbar!” — Arabic for “God is great”— could be heard among the gunshots.

Luc Poignant of the SBP police union said the attackers left in a waiting car and later switched to another vehicle that had been stolen.

Obama’s top spokesman said U.S. officials have been in close contact with the French since the attack. “We know they are not going to be cowed by this terrible act,” spokesman Josh Earnest said.

On social media, supporters of militant Islamic groups praised the move. One Twitter user who identified themselves as a Tunisian loyalist of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group called the attack well-deserved revenge against France.

Elsewhere on the Internet, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie was trending as people expressed support for weekly and for journalistic freedom.

Charlie Hebdo has been repeatedly threatened for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and other controversial sketches. Its offices were firebombed in 2011 after a spoof issue featuring a caricature of the prophet on its cover. Nearly a year later, the publication again published crude Muhammad caricatures, drawing denunciations from around the Muslim world.

Wednesday’s attack comes the same day of the release of a book by a celebrated French novelist depicting France’s election of its first Muslim president. Hollande had been due to meet with the country’s top religious officials later in the day.

WHITE SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — With help from her younger sister, a 15-year-old north Florida girl is accused of fatally shooting their older brother with a gun their parents had locked up while they were away.

Columbia County Sheriff’s deputies say they found the 16-year-old brother’s body late Monday night in the family’s home.

Deputies say they believe the older sister pulled the trigger and her 11-year-old sister somehow assisted in the shooting.

A younger sibling, age 3, is in state custody. Sheriff’s spokesman Murray Smith says the parents are charged with child neglect. They’re accused of failing to supervise in the treatment of children.

Prosecutors haven’t decided whether to charge the girls as adults. Because of the suspects’ ages, The Associated Press is not naming the girls, their brother or the parents.

TIFFIN, Ohio (AP) — A couple married for 69 years died eight hours apart in hospice care in northwest Ohio, and their son says it wasn’t surprising for a pair who did everything together.

88-year-old Gene Warrington and his 86-year-old wife, Pat, died Dec. 27 in Findlay.

A day earlier, Warrington had been able to visit his wife’s room and hold her hand. Phil Warrington says his father recognized that Pat was in critical condition and pulled out his own intravenous tubes the next day. Eight hours after Gene died, his wife passed away.

Phil Warrington says his parents met in junior high school, wed as teenagers and were nearly inseparable, even in failing health. Given that, he says the ending of their love story was almost predictable.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A Long Beach man who kicked a cat to death has been sentenced to two years behind bars.

Prosecutors say Steven Ullery was sentenced Tuesday on a felony count of animal cruelty. He pleaded guilty after jurors deadlocked in a case involving three cat deaths.

Authorities began investigating the 24-year-old after he and his wife returned two dead cats to an animal shelter in 2013 and requested a refund. Investigators found that he returned three dead cats to another animal hospital.

A Los Angeles County prosecutor says Ullery told investigators he had kicked one of the cats because it bit him. He said he strangled a second cat because he thought it was having a seizure so he put it out of his misery.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has re-elected John Boehner to be speaker in the new Republican-led Congress, despite opposition by tea party lawmakers that underscored party divisions.

The Ohio Republican garnered the votes of 216 GOP lawmakers as Congress convened Tuesday. That was enough for him to win a third two-year term leading the House.

But in an embarrassing slap, 25 Republicans voted for other candidates or voted present. They consider Boehner to be too accommodating and not conservative enough.

Their repudiation of Boehner was an awkward display of GOP schisms at a time when party leaders want to show voters that they can govern effectively. They want to show they won’t be forced by tea party legislators into unwinnable, unpopular showdowns with President Barack Obama.