Seven people have been detained in the hunt for brothers suspected of gunning down 12 people in an Islamist assault on a satirical weekly, a judicial source said today.

Confirming earlier comments by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, the source, who refused to be named, said men and women close to the two brothers were currently being questioned by police, without saying where they had been detained.

 

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Women light candles to commemorate the victims killed in an attack at the Paris offices of the weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo after masked gunmen stormed their offices, in front of the French Embassy in Berlin, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015. (AP)

Valls, meanwhile, told RTL radio that the two suspects — who are still on the run — were known to intelligence services and were “no doubt” being followed before yesterday’s attack.

The masked, black-clad gunmen burst into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine yesterday before jumping into a car and escaping.  

Police have issued arrest warrants for Cherif Kouachi, 32, a known jihadist convicted in 2008 for involvement in a network sending fighters to Iraq, and his 34-year-old brother Said. Both were born in Paris.

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Hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly militant attack on French soil in decades. (Reuters)