A man and a woman are receiving treatment after being stabbed outside the former offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in eastern Paris. The victims work for a media production company called Premieres Lignes.
The company took over the offices in 2015 fallowing the deadly assault, in January of that year, on Charlie Hebdo staff which killed 12 innocent people, Speaking from the site, Prime Minister Jean Castex said that the victims' injuries were not life-threatening.
Two men were arrested, about an hour after the stabbings took place. Five others were later arrested on suspicions of helping plan the attack.
France's National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation citing the location and timing of the attacks as key factors in this suspicion of terrorism,
"In view of the attack, in front of the building where Charlie Hebdo's editorial staff was previously installed, the incident is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack," said Paris prosecutor Remy Hertz.
The violence comes three weeks after the start of the high profile trial that accuses 14 people of helping the assailants of the Charlie Hebdo attack as well as the attack of a supermarket, where four people were murdered.
In a statement, France's former President, Francois Holland, said that terrorism remained as a major threat for the country.
"Once again it is the republic that is being hit," Holland said. "But as it has done before it will show the strength of its valews and the firmness of its response."
Friday's violence follows a string of new threats against Charlie Hebdo. The magazine rece9ved threats from al Qaida, earlier this month, after it had published cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed.
The threats have prompted waves of support for Charlie Hebdo as well as the support of freedom of speech in general.
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