The Paris office of the satirical French Magazine Charlie Hebdo has been firebombed and its website has been hacked. It follows the announcement that the magazine would be 'guest edited' by the Prophet Muhammad.
It has been reported that the office was gutted by fire at around 1:00am Paris time, but there were no injuries.
Patrick Pelloux, a witness to the attack, told the AFP news agency that a molotov cocktail was thrown through the window.
"Everything was destroyed," he said.
According to the Associated Press the director of the magazine said “the material damages are large”.
On Tuesday the magazine said that the Prophet Muhammad would be editing the magazine in "honour" of Islam's role in this year's uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other Islamic countries.
"In order fittingly to celebrate the Islamist Ennahda's win in Tunisia and the NTC (National Transitional Council) president's promise that sharia would be the main source of law in Libya, Charlie Hebdo asked Muhammad to be guest editor," the editorial team said in a statement.
On Wednesday morning the magazine's website had also apparently been hacked by an Islamist group.
There have been several cases in Europe of cartoonists, journalists and publishers being threatened or attacked after depicting cartoons and pictures of the religious figure.
Charlie Hebdo was taken to court in 2007 by two Muslim groups for reprinting those cartoons, but the suit was thrown out.