BRUSSELS
Approximately 500 people gathered at a square near the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday to protest the killing of 12 people in an attack that targeted satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on the same day.
Protesters were also mourning those killed at Charlie Hebdo in Paris by lighting candles, holding up pens in a symbolic manifestation for ''freedom of press'' and banners reading: ''Je suis Charlie,'' which is French for ''I am Charlie.''
Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel, who also attended the protest on Wednesday evening, told The Anadolu Agency that it’s important for governments to take decisions in the future to fight against terrorism.
Earlier on Wednesday, three masked armed men armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles attacked people inside the satirical magazine’s building on Wednesday. Eight people were injured, four critically, before they fled the building.
Famous satirical journalists and cartoonists such as Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, Bernard "Tignou" Verlhac, Jean Cabu and George Wolinski were among those killed at the Charlie Hebdo magazine, which sparked controversy in 2006 and 2012 for publishing comic cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
When asked how the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine could target and affect the Muslim population in Europe, where islamophobic attacks have been on the rise, Prime Minister Michel said: ''We have to avoid the psychos of course and we have to avoid the confusion.''
''It is very important to fight for the security for the liberty in our democracies and that’s why I’m trying to do in my country,'' Michel said.
A manhunt has been launched in Paris for the three gunmen who attacked Charlie Hebdo and several protests over the killings have been held in cities across France in Europe.
