The moving tributes to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting

Artists around the world have been responding to the Charlie Hebdo shooting, while social media users changed their avatars and tweeted out poignant images in solidarity with victims of the massacre.

At least 12 people were killed and five seriously injured after masked men stormed the offices of Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo at around midday on Wednesday.

The incident is France’s deadliest terror attack in at least two decades.

French president François Hollande has said the shooting was "undoubtedly" a terrorist attack. It is thought one motivation for the attack may have been some of the controversial cartoons the magazine has published, including some caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. However no group has yet come forward to claim responsibility for the attack and the gunmen remain at large.

Twitter users shared several of these moving cartoons as a tribute to the victims of the killings.

Robert Mankoff

From Chilean illustrator Francisco J Olea

El Jueves

Mala Imagen

Vagelis Papavasiliou

Jean Jullien

Boulet

Dave Pope

Plantu

Le Monde released this cartoon as a response to the attack, which reads "all hearts with Charlie Hebdo".

"Le Monde expresses its amazement and indignation, solidarity with the team of Charlie Hebdo and condolences to the victims' families," the newspaper wrote.

"Attacking our colleague is an attack on freedom of thought and expression, and thus the founding values ​​of our society. Le Monde has continued since these values since its creation in 1944."

Dave Brown

This is tomorrow's Independent leader carton.

Separately the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (which means "I am Charlie" in French) began trending worldwide on Twitter around an hour after the news of the shootings broke.

British satirical publication the Daily Mash changed its Twitter profile picture to 'Je Suis Charlie', while German newspaper Bild were among hundreds of thousands who tweeted out the image and the hashtag. The US embassy in France also changed its Twitter profile picture to "Je Suis Charlie" while AFP, the French news agency, tweeted a poignant tribute.

Finally, this is what the homepage of Charlie Hebdo's website now shows:

You can also download a PDF with "Je Suis Charlie" translated into a range of languages.

More: A brief history of Charlie Hebdo: The French satirical magazine

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