A man who arrived at the offices of Charlie Hebdo five minutes after Thursday’s deadly attack says he saw “stairways full of blood” and as many as 10 corpses lying out in the open.

Paul Moreira, who works across the hall from the French paper’s newsroom, spoke with CP24 on Thursday morning about the ordeal, describing the “graphic scene” that greeted him upon his arrival to the building.

“I was warned by someone from my crew that was inside the building telling me that people were shooting in the corridors, so I came running to the building and the first thing I saw was the doorman killed on the left side of the building. They had just killed him to get the key card to get inside the building,” he said. “Right after that the stairways were full of blood and I saw my crew bringing down a heavily injured journalist, an old friend of mine who I have known for 20 years. He was shot in both legs with Kalashnikov bullets and he is probably going to lose one of his legs. Inside the newsroom there were 10 corpses and a strong smell of (gun) powder.”

Moreira said that by the time he arrived some of his colleagues had already taken two “shaken” survivors of the shooting into their office and paramedics were starting to arrive.

Moreira said that he knew the shooters had left the building at that point but was nonetheless worried that a second attack could be forthcoming.

“We had seen them (the suspects) running away and driving away in their car, but the only thing is that when something like that happens there is usually a second wave – a guy with a belt of explosives or something — that comes after the initial chaos and mayhem,” he said.

Employees knew there was “possibility of attack"

The officers of Charlie Hebdo were firebombed in November 2011 after the paper published a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad and Moreira said those who worked in the building always “knew there was a possibility” of another attack.

“This summer they had police men around the building all the time — night and day —and they disappeared three months ago, so of course we were scared what would happen in the weeks and months after,” he said.

A total of 12 people were killed in the attack on Charlie Hebdo, including four of the newspaper's cartoonists.

Police in France are still looking for two suspects in the attack.

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