Dramatic CCTV images emerged today showing the Charlie Hebdo gunmen robbing a petrol station with a rocket launcher the day after the newspaper massacre.

Al Qaeda brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi can be seen prowling around the store while filling a black plastic bag with food and water while on the run from thousands of police.

Cherif has a rocket-propelled grenade launcher casually slung over his shoulder as he reaches into the drinks fridge.

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On the run: Charlie Hebdo gunman Cherif Kouachi is seen with a rocket launcher slung over his shoulder as he reaches into a drinks fridge while robbing a petrol station with his brother Said hours after the massacre

Unmasked: Their faces are clearly seen on the CCTV as the brothers fill a black plastic bag with supplies

Terrorists: Cherif Kouachi (left) and his brother Said (right) eluded police for two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, robbing a petrol station, stealing a car and then taking a hostage before being killed in a stand-off

The stills, obtained by the French investigative site, Mediapart, also show the killers at the petrol station counter, unmasked.

Police swooped on the site at Villers-Cotterêts, 50 miles north-east of Paris, after the attendant gave the first positive sighting of the pair since the massacre 24 hours earlier on January 7.

A massive manhunt involving tens of thousands of officers was launched, but the Kouachis were able to elude police for the rest of the day.

Investigators later found a dozen Molotov cocktails and two jihadist flags in their getaway car which they dumped before hiding out in a forest overnight.

Closing in: Police swoop on the petrol station after the attendant raised the alarm

Merciless: Masked gunmen Cherif and Said Kouachi shoot a police officer dead as he raises his hands in a plea for his life after they stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hedbo last week

The next day they went on to take a hostage at a printing house in Dammartin-en-Goele near Charles de Gaulle Airport, prompting a day-long stand-off with police.

Meanwhile, their accomplice Armedy Coulibaly had attacked the Paris kosher supermarket, killing four hostages and threatening more violence unless the police let the Kouachis go.

It all ended at dusk on Friday with near-simultaneous raids at the printing plant and the kosher market in eastern Paris, resulting in the death of all three terrorists.

France has ordered 10,000 troops into the streets to protect sensitive sites after last week's bloodshed that left 17 people dead.

The emergence of the CCTV images came as a former teacher of the brothers said the boys were more interested in football than religion at school, but were too dim-witted to avoid extremists after they left.

Said (left) and Cherif (right) Kouachi grew up in a specialist boarding school in the tourist village of Treignac after their parents both died

Francoise Ronfet who helped raise the orphaned pair at a school in the holiday village of Treignac recalls them as happy, popular and trustworthy children who had little interest in religion.

The pair, who are of French-Algerian descent, were sent to the Monedieres centre in the picturesque Mastiff region in 1994 by their mother, who was unable to raise them after their father died suddenly.

Once at the boarding school, which specialises is raising children with social needs, they were largely isolated from the outside world.

There they took up sports, showing a passion for football, while also taking regular lessons.

Francoise Ronfet, a retired biology teacher from the school, grew particularly fond of Cherif. He was not especially bright, she said, but showed a willingness to learn.

She had fewer dealings with Said, Cherif's older brother, but said his level of intellect was 'low'. She said that she noticed Said praying but that religion did not form a large part of his upbringing.

While the boys were in school their mother died and when the time came for them to leave at age 18 they had no family to return to.

Instead they moved together to a council apartment in Paris's poor 19th arrondissement where they fell into a life of drug dealing and petty crime before being taken in by the Buttes Chaumont gang.

The group, which also included Deli attacker Amedy Coulibaly, 32, was lead by two radical Imams who preached jihad.

Speaking about Cherif's move to Paris, Ms Ronfet told The Times: 'He joined up with little groups of hooligans.

'They ran rings around him because he was relatively fragile and allowed himself to be led by the nose.

'I think it's from then on that he started spending time in the mosques. But when he was at college in Treignac he had nothing to do with religion. I don't think he was a practising Muslim.