Arson attack on German newspaper that reprinted Charlie Hebdo cartoons

The offices of a German regional newspaper that reprinted cartoons from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo have been hit with an arson attack, Hamburg police said.

Like several German media outlets, the Hamburger Morgenpost had published images from the French satirical weekly in the aftermath of Wednesday’s militant attack on its offices that saw 10 of its journalists and cartoonists killed.

German police said that rocks were thrown through the cellar windows of the building in the early hours of Sunday morning, followed by an “incendiary device”. They added that the fire was put out quickly and that, while two rooms were damaged and some files burned, no one was injured.

In an article on its website on Sunday, the Hamburger Morgenpost said that it was “too soon” to determine whether a link existed between the attacks on its offices and the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices.

“Thick smoke is still hanging in the air, the police are looking for clues,” the paper said.

Police have arrested two people on suspicion of carrying out the arson attack after they were seen behaving in “an unusual manner” near the scene of the crime, according to the Hamburg police.

German chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Demcorats held a meeting on Saturday where she condemned the attacks but called on people to differentiate between Islam and religious fanaticism.

“We have made clear that the events in France, this barbaric terrorist act, are a challenge for all of us, for the values that we advocate, to fight for them,” Merkel said.