In a briefing on Thursday morning, Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s interior minister, said that seven arrests were made overnight, but the two main suspects, brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, were still at large.
With the search for the gunmen in its second day, anti-terror police converged on the Aisne region of north-east France after unconfirmed, and at times confusing, reports that the suspects had been seen.
Two police sources told Reuters the men were seen armed and wearing cagoules in a Renault Clio car at a petrol station on a secondary road in Villers-Cotterêts, about 70km (40 miles) from the French capital.
Bruno Fortier, the mayor of nearby Crépy-en-Valois, said helicopters were circling his town and police and anti-terrorism forces were deploying en masse.
“It’s an incessant waltz of police cars and trucks,” he told Reuters.
Some French media suggested the suspects had been picked up by cameras at a péage (road toll) stop. Others said they had been identified by the owner of a petrol station near Villers-Cotterêts and a number of reports went even further, suggesting the two men had robbed the petrol station and made off with fuel and food.
The reports suggested that heavy weapons including, allegedly, a Kalashnikov and a rocket launcher, could be seen in the rear of the vehicle.
However, the reports were unconfirmed and there was no indication that police had located the vehicle.
There was a heavy police presence at each of the “portes” – the main roads leading into Paris – amid further unconfirmed reports that the suspects were heading back towards the French capital.
The atmosphere around the edge of the city, where police were awaiting the potential arrival of the two suspects, was described as one of “extreme anticipation” bordering on fear, by French media.
Traffic appeared to be moving through certain Paris portes, suggesting the capital was not in complete lockdown. However, the roads around the Champs Elysées and the Elysée presidential palace were closed by police on Wednesday.
Levallois, where part of France’s intelligence services is based, was also sealed off.
In the Aisne area, Puma helicopters carrying elite rapid-reaction troops were deployed to search for the gunmen.
Officials said gendarmes - part of the French military - had also been drafted in to the search in the southern Aisne department.
There were solemn scenes across France and the world as thousands of citizens observed a minute’s silence, marked by the ringing of the bells of Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral.
As the minute came to a close at the Place de la République, the crowds applauded, but at the cathedral on the Île de la Cité crowds remained quiet as many held pens aloft in the air as a mark of respect for the 12 people killed in Wednesday’s atrocity.
The silence was also observed in newsrooms in France and across the world, as journalists paid respect to their colleagues at the satirical newspaper.
A separate manhunt was launched after a female police officer was killed in an attack – not linked by police to the Charlie Hebdo atrocity – in the south Paris suburb of Montrouge. The officer, said to be on work experience, was shot in the back after being called to a car accident involving the gunman’s vehicle.
According to reports a man has been arrested and another man is on the run after two people, including the officer, were shot around 5km from Paris city centre.
According to Agence France-Presse, police sources confirmed that the female police officer, who worked in traffic control, was shot in the back and had died. Another man, thought to be a municipal worker, was injured.
Cazeneuve, who went immediately to the scene, said it was far too early to say whether the incident was related to the Charlie Hebdo attack.
French police have released photographs of brothers Saïd, 34, and Chérif Kouachi, 32. It emerged that Kouachi, has a history of funnelling jihadi fighters to Iraq and a terrorism conviction from 2008. He and his brother, Saïd, should be considered armed and dangerous, French police said in a bulletin early on Thursday, appealing for witnesses after a fruitless search in the city of Reims, in French Champagne country.
A police source told Reuters news agency that one of the suspects had been identified by his identity card, which had been left in the getaway car.
An official at the Paris prosecutor’s office said a third suspect – an 18-year-old named as Hamyd Mourad – had turned himself in at a police station in Charleville-Mézières, a small town in France’s eastern Champagne region, 230km north-east of Paris near the border with Belgium.
BFM TV, citing unidentified sources, said the teenager had decided to go to the police after seeing his name on social media. Friends of the teenager were reported to have said he was in school at the time of the shootings.
Hollande had declared Thursday a day of national mourning, with flags to be held at half-mast for three days, saying the country had been “struck at its very heart”. But he vowed on Wednesday: “Freedom will always be stronger than barbarism. The brutal shootings triggered a wave of solidarity, with rallies in defence of free speech in more than 30 French cities and in global capitals.”
Wednesday’s atrocity was the worst terrorist attack in France for half a century and the bloodiest single assault on western journalism in living memory. Twelve people were killed: nine Charlie Hebdo staff members, two policemen and a maintenance worker.
