Students say suspected getaway driver Mourad Hamyd was in class at time of attack, in series of tweets under hashtag #MouradHamydInnocent

Classmates of an 18-year-old accused of being the getaway driver in the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine offices in Paris on Wednesday have defended him on Twitter, saying he was in class when masked gunmen opened fire.

Mourad Hamyd turned himself in to police in his home town of Charleville-Mézières, near the Belgian border, after he was named as one of three suspects in the attack, which killed 12, and saw his name on social media.

Soon afterwards, people claiming to be his classmates started tweeting under the hashtag #MouradHamydInnocent. “He’s in my class, and he was there for lessons this morning,” wrote @babydroma. Her account has been active since 2012, and before Wednesday was full of chatter about teachers and lessons, with a picture of film star James Franco as wallpaper.

Apparently frustrated by journalists and others questioning her identity and motive, a couple of hours later she added: “I swear to you I haven’t spoken to Mourad more than five times, but I felt obliged to help him.” She later clarified that they had been in a philosophy class at the time of the attack.

Others also joined in on the same hashtag: “Imagine that you went to class with your mate, and then in the evening he is accused of [taking part in] the attack. Please retweet #MouradHamydInnocent,” said @_neednobody. The 18-year-old, called Laura, has a longstanding account with tens of thousands of tweets and says she is studying for a BTS, a vocational qualification.

Another teenager, @AnyceDz, who said Hamyd was a friend and the two had spent the morning together, changed his profile name to #MouradHamydInnocent. He tweeted that school officials had advised him to stop giving interviews about his friend.