The suspects in the shooting deaths of 12 staffers at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo may have been spotted an hour northeast of Paris in a small town, prompting police to floor the area, according to Agence France-Presse.

Authorities are following up on a report that two men fitting the description of brother Said and Cherif Kouachi had stolen food and gas from a gas station near Villers Cotterets on Thursday morning.

Both men, who are in the early 30s, are accused of killing 12 employees of Charlie Hebdo and wounding several others while hooded and shouting Islamist phrases such as “allahu akbar.” The magazine had frequently made fun of Islam — among other religions. Earlier today, 18-year-old Mourad Hamyd, who was allegedly with the men, surrounded to police in a small town int he eastern region after hearing his name had been linked to the attacks.

An armed robbery took place at a gas station in the town, and both the attackers resembled the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo shooting, according to AFP. They fled toward Paris in a Renault Clio, which had its license plates covered. Weapons could be seen in the backseat, according to the report. They were masked at the time of the robbery.

Police immediately flooded the scene, and helicopters could be seen circling overhead.

Cherif Kouachi has been in trouble with the French authorities in the past due to supposedly helping funnel jihadi fighters to Iraq, as well as a terrorism conviction he received in 2008.

France’s Prime Minister said that police had made several detentions in their search for the men shortly after the shooting on Wednesday, but an overnight search of the city of Reims had not turned up anything.

The shooting resulted in a national day of mourning in France. The publication had been threatened before over its depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, which is banned in Islamic culture.

The terror alert had been raised to its maximum level after the attack, and 800 extra soldiers were deployed to guard media offices, places of worship, transportation, and other areas that could be threatened with attack.

Fears of jihadis have long persisted in Europe with constant threats of staging attacks over the media’s treatment of Islam, and physical attacks against satirists by jihadis have happened before on the continent.

A witness to the attack said the men were methodical in their actions and resembled an anti-terrorism squad, until they fired at a police officer in a disturbing incident that was captured on video.

The men, who were clad in all black, rushed the offices in downtown Paris near the Bastille monument at around noon, gaining access to the building at gunpoint and executing the staff in the offices. The building had been firebombed in 2011 over depictions of Islam, although it did not focus exclusively on the religion.

The staff was in an editorial meeting at the time and the gunmen when to the paper’s editor, Stephane Charbonnier, also known as Charb. They killed him and his bodyguard while shouting “allahu akbar,” meaning “God is great,” speaking in fluent French as they called out the names of employees. About 11 other people were wounded, four of them seriously.

Afterward, the men calmly went to the black car waiting for them and casually shot a wounded police officer in the head in a moment that was captured on video.

One of the men said in the video that they had avenged the Prophet Muhammad. “We killed Charlie Hebdo,” he is heard saying in French.