Belgian paper that ran Charlie cartoons evacuated after threat – police

BRUSSELS, Belgium – The offices of a Belgian newspaper that republished cartoons from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were evacuated on Sunday, January 11, after receiving an anonymous bomb threat, its staff said.

The evacuation of Le Soir, a French-language daily, came as thousands of people marched through Brussels in solidarity with France following Islamist attacks on Charlie Hebdo and other sites.

“An anonymous caller made threats against the editorial side of the paper, after which it was decided to evacuate the building,” Maroun Labaki, in charge of the paper’s foreign pages, told the Belga news agency.

The caller told journalists the bomb was “going to go off in your newsroom,” Le Soir journalist Martine Dubuisson tweeted. 

Police closed off the road around the paper’s offices.

Le Soir was one of many European papers that reprinted cartoons from Charlie Hebdo including some mocking the prophet Mohammed. 

A German tabloid that reprinted them was firebombed on Sunday. – Rappler.com