STRASBOURG, Jan. 7-- As many as 4,500 people have gathered here on Wednesday evening as part of a demonstration for the victims of a suspected terrorist attack, a spokesperson for the Prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department of France told Xinhua.

The demonstration was held as similar gatherings took place throughout France and abroad, including ones held in Berlin, London, Vienna, and elsewhere.

In Strasbourg, the crowd started gathering in Place Kleber, the largest public square downtown, shortly before 6 p.m. (1700 GMT). By 7 p.m. the square was completely filled with people, Xinhua observed.

A call to gather in homage to the victims was shared throughout the day on social media sites, and various groups associated themselves with the event, including the University of Strasbourg, which shared its support of the demonstration in an email to staff and students from the university president, Alain Beretz.

At the event, demonstrators held up signs with the phrase, "I am Charlie" ("Je suis Charlie") to show their solidarity with the victims, Xinhua observed.

Other participants lit candles and placed them at the foot of a statue of General Kleber which adorns the center of the square. Several people held up copies of Charlie Hebdo.

The crowd was mostly reserved, but in frequent chants broke up the silence. People shouted, "I think, I write, freely!" in reference to what is seen as having been an attack on freedom of expression and democratic values.

Earlier on Wednesday, at least two gunmen in Paris stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly magazine, killing 12 people, including 8 journalists and 2 police officers, and injuring 11.

Witness accounts as reported by Le Monde suggest Islamist militants committed the attack. Charlie Hebdo has regularly published articles and cartoons mocking the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

The gunmen are currently still at large, and a search is underway throughout France.