‘Charlie Hebdo’ sells out within minutes

The first edition of Charlie Hebdo published after last week’s deadly attack by Islamist gunmen sold out within minutes at newspaper kiosks around France, with readers queuing up for copies to support the satirical weekly.

It came as al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it ordered the killings because it deemed the weekly had insulted the Prophet Mohammad. Five million copies of “the survivors’ edition” are to be printed, dwarfing the normal 60,000 print run.

“I’ve never bought it before, it’s not quite my political stripes, but it’s important for me to buy it today and support freedom of expression”, said David Sullo, standing at the end of a queue of two dozen people at a kiosk in central Paris.