Terror attack against Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper

Islamic extremist attacks on the freedom of the press may have now expanded to the Northern German harbor city of Hamburg. The Hamburger Morgenpost was attacked Sunday Morning at 2:20 am local time after printing Charlie Hebdo cartoons. The paper is considered to be the largest and leading news outlet in this German City State.

The Hamburg Morgenpost reported it is uncertain if the arson attack on their office is connected to their reprinting of controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Vandals threw rocks at the offices of paper. The paper published copies of cartoons by the French satirical magazine at the center of a terrorist massacre in Paris on Wednesday.

Many other German papers also printed the magazine’s cartoons in a show of solidarity for freedom of the press after the attack.

According to police and the newspaper’s website, a firebomb was also thrown through the basement window of the building, setting fire to a number of archival files.

A spokesman of the Hamburg Fire Department said the fire was extinguished quickly, and that members of the newspaper’s staff will be able to return to work later Sunday morning.

No one was in the building at the time of the attack, and there were no reported injuries, the building itself was damaged, and staff were badly shaken hearing about the incident.

Two men “behaving suspiciously” in the area were arrested by police. German state security has begun an investigation into the incident.