Judicial Police of Paris Brothers Said and Chérif Kouachi are being sought by police in connection to the shooting attack on the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The latest:

• Two suspects in Wednesday's terrorist attack, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, are at large; they are considered armed and dangerous.

• The two were reportedly spotted Thursday morning in northern France. French special forces are pursuing them.

• The 18-year-old stepbrother of the two suspects, Hamyd Mourad, surrendered to police late Wednesday.

Police are on the hunt for two men involved in Wednesday's terrorist attack at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.

Police say suspects Said and Cherif Kouachi, two brothers, are on the loose and are armed and dangerous after escaping the attack by car. According the latest reports, the two have been seen driving along a road about 30 miles north of Paris and at a gas station in Aisne in northern France.

BBC reports that the brothers robbed the gas station.

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Google Maps AFP reports that the men were seen armed with AK-47s and RPG rocket launchers. French special forces have been deployed to the area. French media is reporting that hundreds of police were searching house to house in the town of Crepy-en-Valois. Now they are reportedly searching a forest nearby.

A third man, the Kouachis' 18-year-old stepbrother, Hamyd Mourad, handed himself over to police in northeastern France late Wednesday, according to AFP. Mourad is from an area near Reims in northeastern France.

BFM TV, citing unidentified sources, said Mourad decided to go to the police after seeing his name on social media as one of the suspects sought in connection with the attack.

Police arrested seven people overnight, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told local media, and those arrested reportedly include people who knew the Kouachi brothers.



REUTERS/Charles Platiau Members of French special police forces of Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) are seen at the scene of a shooting in the street of Montrouge near Paris January 8, 2015. Brothers Have Links To Terrorism

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Both men sought by authorities as suspects, Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, are French nationals.

The brothers are linked to a Yemeni terrorist network, an anonymous police official told the Associated Press . A witness at the scene of the attack quoted the gunmen as saying, "You can tell the media that it's Al Qaeda in Yemen."

Police identified the men as suspects after Said "left his identification papers in the abandoned Citroën vehicle used to escape after the attack on Charlie Hebdo," The New York Times reports.

The Times reports that authorities said Mourad, who surrendered to police Wednesday night, drove the getaway car.



Cherif was reportedly convicted on terrorism charges in 2008 for helping funnel fighters into Iraq, according to NBC News. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.



During the trial, he reportedly said he was outraged by images of the torture of Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison run by the US in Iraq.

Attackers Forced Their Way Into Charlie Hebdo Offices

Charlie Hebdo has drawn the ire of Islamic militant groups for regularly publishing cartoons and articles that lampooned jihadists, including caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that many Muslims find offensive. The magazine's offices were firebombed in 2011 after the magazine published controversial cartoons poking fun at Islam.

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