The French Police have named the police officer who was killed during an attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo as Ahmed Merabet, 42, who was patrolling the area at the time and is believed to be a Muslim.

Merabet is seen in footage released by Reuters asking the gunmen to spare his life in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, where the offices of the publication were situated, before he was shot multiple times. The man is survived by his wife.

After being shot the first time, the gunmen wearing balaclavas and holding Kalashnikov rifles are seen running past the police officer – who had his hands up in surrender – and shot in his direction again at point-blank range as he was lying on the pavement outside the offices.

The masked gunmen is heard asking the police officer “Do you want to kill me?” before he allegedly replied “No, it is OK chief” before one of them shot him a second time round amid an attack described as the worst in France in 50 years.