According to the source, police are looking for a gray Renault Clio.
The French media have reported that Said and Cherif Kouachi, the French nationals of Algerian origin suspected of carrying out the attack, were spotted in the department of Aisne in the north of France. They reportedly robbed a service station and drove away in a Renault Clio in the direction of Paris.
The license plate of the car is absent or hidden, and the two men in it are armed and wearing masks or hoodies, the source told RIA Novosti.
"Today we've received dozens of calls about men armed with Kalashnikovs in grey Renaults. This is very similar to panic," the source said.
Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi were already known to French law enforcement agencies for previous extremist activity. Cherif Kouachi, the younger brother, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 after being accused of participating in a network that recruited French Muslims to fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq. The third suspect, an 18 year-old, has already surrendered to the police, claiming he did not take part in the attack.
On Wednesday, three men assumed to be Islamic extremists attacked the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing 12 people and injuring 11 others. The shooters left the scene in a black Citroen, subsequently changing vehicle. French authorities are currently carrying out a nationwide hunt for the attackers.
Charlie Hebdo is known for its anti-religious and specifically anti-radical Islamic cartoons. It has been a target of threats by Islamic extremists due to its publishing of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. Among the latest posts on Charlie Hebdo's Twitter before the attack was a cartoon mocking the leader of Islamic State militant group Abu Bakr Baghdadi.
