Passos Coelho said in a letter addressed to his French counterpart that he was upset by the news that the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo had been the target of a terrorist attack that had taken 12 lives and injured another 20.


“On behalf of the Portuguese government and personally, I condemn this hateful act that has put France into mourning and we share your suffering with a deep sense of solidarity”, he said.


The Portuguese prime minister sent his condolences to the families who had been het and said he hoped the injured would recover quickly.


The Charlie Hebdo weekly paper was created by the writer and reporter François Cavanna in 1992 and has been widely recognised in recent years for publishing cartoons of Mohammed, whose image is for some reason considered to blasphemy by Islam.