What do we know about the shooters?

Here's what we know about the three men identified by French police as the main suspects in the Charlie Hebdo shooting:

- Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi are two Franco-Algerian Muslim brothers, both from Gennevilliers aged 34 and 32. Their parents were Algerian immigrants to France.

- In 2008, Chérif Kouachi was convicted of terrorism charges and sentenced to three years in prison, along with 18 months of suspension, for having been part of a group that solicited young French Muslims to fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq. Chérif Kouachi said he was inspired to help Iraq's insurgency by outrage at the torture of inmates of the U.S. prison at Abdu Ghraib.

- Hamyd Mourad an 18-year-old unemployed French Muslim man of North-African descent was identified by the police as a third suspect in the shooting, accused of driving the getaway car. At 2.22 a.m. on Wednesday it was reported he had turned himself in to French police. Mourad has said he was in college at the time of the shooting. Several of Hamyd's classmates are defending him on social media with the hastag #MouradHamydInnocent.

- Witnesses described hearing the attackers shout “Allahu akbar” as well as “We have avenged the prophet.” Corrine Rey, a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist, said the attackers “spoke French perfectly” and claimed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda. According to another eyewitness, one of the hooded black-garbed gunmen told a passerby that they were from “Al-Qaeda in Yemen”.