BERLIN (Sputnik) – Citing confidential police documents, the Spiegel said the man drove in the eastward direction toward Cologne in a dark blue BMW with stolen Belgian license plates.
"Two days after the attacks, an unknown suspect was seen in a rest area on the A4 [motorway] near Frechen in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was recorded there by security cameras," the Spiegel online publication said.
German security agencies are on a hunt for seven suspected terrorists alongside France, the Netherlands and Belgium, according to the outlet.
One of the most widely known suspects in the Paris attacks is Belgium-born Salah Abdeslam. The 26-year-old fugitive was thought to have rented a car used to transport the gunmen to the Bataclan concert hall where they killed the majority of the Paris attacks victims.
A late November search operation in the North Rhine-Westphalia town of Rahden failed to locate Abdeslam, who was thought to be in the Minden-Lubbecke district.
A total of 130 people were killed and over 350 injured in the attacks on a football stadium, a concert hall and restaurants in the French capital. The Islamic State jihadist group (Daesh in Arabic), outlawed in Russia, claimed responsibility for the attack.